Rawlins' old life, however, was very strong on her, and she devoted herself to the task of saving her fallen sisters. Knowing, as she did, all the intricacies of the slums, she was enabled to do an immense amount of good, and many an unhappy woman was saved from the squalor and hardship of a gutter life by the kind hand of Sal Rawlins.
Felix Rolleston became a member of Parliament, where his speeches, if not very deep, were at least amusing, and while in the House always behaved like a gentleman, which could not be said about all his parliamentary colleagues.
Madge slowly recovered from her illness, and, as she had been implicitly named in the will as the heiress to Mark Frettlby's great wealth, she placed the management of her estates in the hands of Mr. Calton, who, with Thinton & Tarbet, acted as her agents in Australia. On her recovery she learned the story of her father's early marriage, but both Calton and Fitzgerald were silent about the fact of Sal Rawlins being her half-sister, as such a relation could do no good, and would only create a scandal, as no explanation could be given except the true one. Shortly afterwards Madge married Fitzgerald, and both of them only too gladly left Australia, with all its sorrows and bitter memories.
Standing with her husband on the deck of one of the P. and O. steamers, as it plowed the blue waters of Hobson's Bay into foam, they both watched Melbourne as it gradually faded from their view, under the plow of the sunset. They could see the two domes of the Exhibition, and the Law Courts, and Government House with its tall tower rising from the midst of the green trees. In the background was a bright crimson sky, barred with masses of black clouds, and over all the great city hung a cloud of smoke like a pall.
The glaring red light of the sinking sun glared angrily on the heavy waters, and the steamer seemed to be making its way through a sea of blood. Madge, clinging to her husband's arm, felt her eyes fill with tears, as she saw the land of her birth receding slowly.
"Good-bye," she murmured, softly. "Good-bye for ever."
"You do not regret?" he said, bending his head.
