Page 446 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

tion was Frere’s own. He never cared for military duty, and
had, moreover, private debts to no inconsiderable amount.
By selling his commission he would be enabled at once to
pay these debts, and render himself eligible for any well-
paid post under the Colonial Government that the interest
of his father-in-law, and his own reputation as a convict dis-
ciplinarian, might procure. Vickers would fain have kept
his daughter with him, but he unselfishly acquiesced in the
scheme, admitting that Frere’s plea as to the comforts she
would derive from the society to be found in Sydney was a
valid one.
‘You can come over and see us when we get settled, papa,’
said Sylvia, with a young matron’s pride of place, ‘and we
can come and see you. Hobart Town is very pretty, but I
want to see the world.’
‘You should go to London, Poppet,’ said Maurice, ‘that’s
the place. Isn’t it, sir?’
‘Oh, London!’ cries Sylvia, clapping her hands. ‘And
Westminster Abbey, and the Tower, and St. James’s Palace,
and Hyde Park, and Fleet-street!’ ‘Sir,’ said Dr. Johnson, ‘let
us take a walk down Fleet-street.’ Do you remember, in Mr.
Croker’s book, Maurice? No, you don’t I know, because you
only looked at the pictures, and then read Pierce Egan’s ac-
count of the Topping Fight between Bob Gaynor and Ned
Neal, or some such person.’
‘Little girls should be seen and not heard,’ said Maurice,
between a laugh and a blush. ‘You have no business to read
my books.’
‘Why not?’ she asked, with a gaiety which already seemed