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A BRIDE FROM THE BUSH

'Yet she didn't like leaving this, even for a week—eh, Bunn?'

'Lor', no, sir! She spoke as if she was never coming back no more. And she kissed me, Mr Granville—she did, indeed, sir; though I never named that in the servants' hall. She said there might be a accident, or somethink, and me never see her no more; but that, if ever she went back to Australia, she'd remember my young man, and get him a good billet. Them were her very words. But, oh, Mr Granville!—oh, sir!——'

'There, there. Don't turn on the waterworks, Bunn. I thought Mrs Alfred had been cut up about something; but I wasn't sure—that's why I asked you, Bunn; though I think, perhaps, you needn't name this conversation either in the servants' hall, or tell any one else what you have told me. Yes, you may go past now. But—stop a minute, Bunn—here's something else that you needn't name in the servants' hall.'

The something else was a half-sovereign.

'It was worth it, too,' said Granville, when the girl was gone; 'she has given me