



Produced by Nick Wall, David K. Park and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
book was produced from scanned images of public domain
material from the Google Books project.)







  FERN VALE

  OR THE
  QUEENSLAND SQUATTER.

  A NOVEL.

  BY COLIN MUNRO.

  IN THREE VOLUMES.
  VOL II.

  LONDON:

  T. C. NEWBY,

  30 WELBECK STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE.
  MDCCCLXII.


  EDINBURGH: PRINTED BY THE CALEDONIAN PRESS,

  "The National Institution for Promoting the Employment of Women in the
  Art of Printing."




CONTENTS.
                        PAGE
     CHAPTER       I       1
     CHAPTER      II      32
     CHAPTER     III      48
     CHAPTER      IV      77
     CHAPTER       V     105
     CHAPTER      VI     128
     CHAPTER     VII     146
     CHAPTER    VIII     180
     CHAPTER      IX     205
     CHAPTER       X     232
     CHAPTER      XI     253
     CHAPTER     XII     287
     CHAPTER    XIII     325




FERN VALE.

CHAPTER I.

  "What are these,
  So withered, and so wild in their attire,
  That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
  And yet are on't?"

MACBETH, _Act 1, Sc. 3_.


"Those fellows have been up to some mischief I am certain," said Tom
when the blacks departed, as described in the last chapter. "I am
confident my brother has not given them anything; and if they have got
any rations at Strawberry Hill, they must have stolen them. However, if
you intend going over to their corroboree, I'll accompany you."

"I do intend going," said John, "for I have never seen them in such
force as they'll be to-night, and I am curious to see the effect. Do
you know what is the nature of the ceremony of their kipper corroboree?"

"I can't exactly say," replied Tom, "their ordinary corroborees are
simply feasts to commemorate some event; but the kipper corroboree has
some mystery attached to it, which they do not permit strangers to
witness. I believe it is held once a year, to admit their boys into the
communion of men; and to give 'gins' to the neophytes, if they desire to
add to their importance by assuming a marital character. I believe it is
simply a ceremony, in which they recognise the transition of their
youths from infancy to manhood; though they keep the proceedings veiled
from vulgar eyes."

"When, then," continued John, "the kippers are constituted men, and get
their gins, are their marriage engagements of a permanent nature; I mean
does their nuptial ceremony, whatever it may be, effectually couple
them; and is it considered by them inviolable?"

"I believe," replied Tom, "the ceremony is binding on the gins, but
their lords are permitted to exercise a supreme power over the liberty
and destiny of their spouses. The gins are merely looked upon as so many
transferable animals, and they are frequently stolen and carried off by
adventurous lovers from their lawful lords and masters; and as
frequently made over with the free consent of their husbands, the same
as we should do with flocks and herds. Most of the quarrels among the
tribes arise from such thefts; and the wills and inclinations of the
gins are never for a moment considered."

After this remark the conversation of the young men turned into other
channels. About sundown they prepared themselves for their visit, and
mounting their horses started off to the Gibson river; which, owing to
the darkness of the night, and the difficulty they experienced in
threading the bush, and avoiding the fallen logs, they did not reach so
quickly as they had anticipated. They, however, crossed by the flats,
and guided by the noise of the blacks, and the light from their fires in
the scrub, they soon came upon the "camp;" where they found Dugingi,
true to his promise, waiting for them.

The camp was composed of about fifty "gunyas" or huts, formed in a
circle; in the midst of which were several of the natives, talking and
gesticulating most vociferously and wildly. The gunyas were small
conical structures of about five or six feet in diameter; formed by
pieces of cane being fixed into the ground in an arched shape, so as to
make ribs, which were covered with the flakey sheets of the tea tree
bark, and laid perfectly close and compact, in which position they were
fixed by an outer net-work of reedy fibre; making, though primitive and
meagre in accommodation, a dwelling perfectly impervious to the weather.
Into these burrow-like domiciles, crowd, sometimes, as many as five or
six human beings, who coil themselves into a mass to economize space,
and generate caloric in cold nights; when they have a fire in front of
the opening which serves for a door. In warmer weather, however, they
generally stretch themselves under heaven, with only a blanket to cover
them; and, with their feet towards the fire, a party may frequently be
seen radiating in a circle from the centre of heat.

When the camp was approached by the young men, the host of dogs, which
are the usual concomitants of a black's tribe, gave warning of the
visitors' presence; and Dugingi, who was by that means attracted, first
removing their horses to a place of safety, led them within the
mysterious periphery. As they emerged suddenly from the obscurity of the
scrub into the open space where the corroboree was in full progress,
they were not a little startled at the scene before them. In the centre
was an immense fire; and around it, about one hundred and fifty men were
assembled in a circle, except at a gap at the side from which the
visitors approached. Here sat, or rather squatted, the gins, the
piccaninies, and the males incapacitated from senescence or infirmities.
The blacks having ceased their exertions as our friends arrived, the
latter had a good opportunity of surveying the picture at their leisure.

In the spot where the blacks had made their camp the ground was
naturally clear, and was covered with a smooth sward; while immediately
beyond the circumscribed limits of the natural clearance, the thick
scrub was, to any but a black fellow, perfectly impenetrable; thus
presenting to the eye of the beholder, the appearance of an umbrageous
amphitheatre especially created for those savage orgies. The men were
all more or less bedecked and besmeared; and, at the moment of our
friends' contemplation of them, stood taking breath preparatory to the
repetition of fresh exertions. The immense fire was being continually
replenished by the gins, and threw a fitful glance over the whole scene
that struck the mind with an indescribable sensation of mingled awe,
dread, and disgust. While those sensations were traversing the minds of
John and Tom Rainsfield Jemmy Davis stepped forward from amidst the
group, and saluted them with the greatest urbanity. But such was his
metamorphosis that our friends did not, until he had declared himself by
speech, recognise in the painted savage before them an educated and
civilized black.

His hair was drawn up to a tuft on the top of his head, and into it had
been thrust numerous of the most gaudy parrot and cockatoo feathers.
When he walked this top knot acquired an eccentric oscillation, which
gave his head the appearance of a burlesque on the plumed cranium of a
dignified hearse horse; and was the only part of his ornature that was
of a ludicrous character. His forehead was painted a deep yellow; from
his eyes to a line parallel to his nose his skin shone with a bright
red; while the rest of his face showed its natural dirty brown colour.
His body was fancifully marked in white, delineating his ribs; with
grotesque devices on his breast and back. His legs and arms were as
black as charcoal could make them; and with a necklace of bones and
shells, his toilet was complete. It has been facetiously stated that the
New Zealander's full dress consists of a shirt collar and a pair of
spurs; but Jemmy Davis had no such useless appendages; and, as he stood
before his guests in the conviction of his costume being complete, and
in the pride of conscious adornment, he never dreamt but that his own
self-gratulation was also shadowing their admiration and delight.

In a few minutes John and his companion were left alone; and the
corroboree commenced afresh by the resumption of the musical
accompaniments, which, as they were peculiar, we may as well describe.
We have already said, the gins were squatted on the ground near the
circle; and, we may now add, they had composed their ungraceful forms
in the oriental fashion. Some of them had their hands half open, or
rather their fingers were kept close together, while the palms were made
to assume a concave shape, as if for the purpose of holding water. With
them in this form they struck them simultaneously on their supine
thighs, with a metrical regularity, which made an unearthly hollow
noise, and formed the base of their orchestral display. Others of them
beat a similar measure on their waddies, or sticks; while the whole
burst into a discordant vocal accompaniment, in which they were joined
by the men and piccaninies in a dull and monotonous cadence. This was
their song; which, to adequately describe, would be impossible. Some
idea, however, may possibly be formed of it, when we say that they all
commenced in a high mournful key, in which they unintelligibly mumbled
their bucolic. On this first note they dwelt for about half a minute;
and descended the gamut in the same metre, resting only on the flats,
and expending their breath in a prolongation of the last, and deepest,
note they could utter; terminating in one eructation something between a
grunt and a sigh, or a concentration of the idiosyncratic articulation
of the London paviers. And as they dwelt upon this note for about a
minute, the combined effects of their mutterings, and the noise of their
feet, were not unlike the distant fulmination of thunder.

Their dance too, was conducted totally different to the wild gestures of
other savages. The participators in the ceremony, as we have already
explained, stood in a semi-circular line. Slightly stooping, they swung
their arms backwards and forwards before their bodies, and with their
feet beat a measured tread on the ground; while they continued to
contract their frames, almost into a sitting posture, and to accelerate
their pendulous and stamping motions; until, with an universal
convulsion, the last sigh or grunt was expatriated from their carcasses.
After a dead stop of some few seconds, with a recommencement of their
femoral accompaniment, they erected their bodies with their voices, and
proceeded _de capo_; presenting a scene more like a festival in
pandemonium than a congregation of human beings in "this huge rotundity
on which we tread."

The feelings of the young men, as they stood and watched this
performance, were varied; neither of them had seen a corroboree on so
grand a scale before; and they were for a time lost in wonder at an
exhibition, which no description can truthfully depict. John was
dreaming of the emancipation and improvement of a race, which he
believed, could be made to ameliorate their condition; and felt
sorrowful that, in the midst of civilisation (with its examples before
their eyes, and the inculcations which had been instilled into the
nature of one of their number), the blacks should be still perpetuating
the emblems of their barbarity and degradation. Tom's meditations were
of a different nature; though he advocated kind treatment to them in
the intercourses of life, he still believed them an inferior race of
sentient beings; if not altogether devoid of the mental attributes of
man. He, moreover, thought he read in their manner, despite all the
suavity of Jemmy Davis and Dugingi, something that portended evil; and
fancied he heard more than once, his own name uttered by them in their
song. It might have been only fancy, he thought; but an idea of
something premeditated had seized upon his mind, and he could not divest
himself of it.

Our young friends by this time, having seen quite enough to satisfy
them, and being unnoticed in their position, quietly left the spot;
and, having procured their horses, retraced their steps to the river.
They there mounted, and having crossed the stream, returned almost
silently to Fern Vale, and retired to rest. On the following morning Tom
took his leave of his friend; while, almost contemporary with his
departure, John's black boys, Billy and Jemmy, presented themselves to
resume their former life on the station. We may remark that Billy had by
this time perfectly recovered from his castigation, though he, and also
his companion, did not fail to stigmatize in very strong, if not in very
elegant, or pure English, phraseology, the conduct of Mr. Rainsfield;
and as much as insinuated that the tribe were in no very friendly way
disposed towards him.

This, John Ferguson was seriously grieved to learn; for he dreaded the
consequence of an open rupture between the aborigines and his neighbour.
He knew, if the blacks became more than ordinarily troublesome, that
Rainsfield would enlist the sympathies of his friends, and his class
generally; when blood would inevitably be shed, and the poor natives
hunted from the face of the earth. He therefore determined, if he should
not see Tom in a day or two, to ride over and call upon Mr. Rainsfield;
and while adverting to the treatment received by his black boy from
him, warn him of the danger, not only to himself, but to all the
settlers in his neighbourhood, by his persisting in his stringent
course. With this intention, a few days after the corroboree, not having
seen his friend in the interval, he rode over to Strawberry Hill.

As he approached the residence of the Rainsfields, despite his struggles
to suppress it, he felt his heart beat high with the anticipation of
seeing Eleanor, for the first time since his meeting with Bob Smithers.
John had, of late, striven hard to wean himself from what he attempted
to believe was his wild infatuation; and thought that he had
sufficiently schooled his mind, so as to meet her without the slightest
perturbation. But he had deceived himself; and as he approached the
house, and felt a consciousness of her proximity, he experienced that
strange agitation over which mortals have no control. He, however,
determined to avoid giving any outward indication of his mental
disquietude, so as not to cause any uneasiness to Eleanor from his
visit; and for that purpose he stopped his horse in the bush, before he
came within sight, and collected himself into a settled calmness. Having
performed this little piece of training he proceeded, and was passing
the huts on his way to the house, when he was accosted by Mr. Billing;
who informed him that Mr. Rainsfield had desired him to intimate, that
if he, Mr. Ferguson, desired to see that gentleman, he would meet him at
Mr. Billing's cottage in a few minutes. This request John thought rather
singular; but he turned his horse's head to the direction of the
cottage, at the door of which he alighted; and, after fastening his
horse to the fence, he entered.

"You will no doubt think it exceedingly rude in me, Mr. Ferguson,"
exclaimed the little man, "to intercept you in your road to the house.
Though you perceive me, sir, in a menial capacity, I am perfectly
conversant with, as I am also possessed of the feelings of a gentleman;
therefore I feel a repugnance, sir, in wounding those feelings in
another. You are doubtless aware, sir, we have had another marauding
visitation from those insolent savages; and Mr. Rainsfield is not only
greatly enraged at them, but has become, sir, extremely irascible and
truculent towards myself; and has conceived a notion that you are in
some way influencing and encouraging them in their depredations. The
pertinacity with which they annoy him, sir, is certainly marvellous; and
he is confirmed in the belief that it is in a great measure owing to
your instigations; therefore he gave instructions that, in the event of
your calling, I should request you to step under my humble roof, while I
sent him notice of your presence. This, sir, I have done, so you may
expect to see him in a few minutes. I merely mention these
circumstances, sir, not in disparagement of my employer; but to account
to you for my rudeness, and exonerate myself from the imputation of any
voluntary violation of good breeding."

"Pray, don't mention it, Mr. Billing," replied John; "I don't imagine
for a moment that you would intentionally commit any breach of decorum,
even if the interruption of my passage could be termed such; but I must
confess, I can't understand why Mr. Rainsfield should wish to prevent me
from calling upon him in his own house." Though John said this, his
heart whispered a motive for such interruption.

"I am flattered, sir, by your good opinion," said Mr. Billing, "and I
thank you. I believe, sir, you're a native of the colony, and have not
visited Europe; but you are a man of the world, sir, I can perceive, and
will readily understand the anomalies of my position. I, who have been
bred, sir, in the mercantile community of the cosmopolitan metropolis,
being subjected to the petty tyrannies of a man, whom I consider
mentally my inferior. I am disgusted, sir, with the incongruities of my
situation, and harassed by the thought of my trials being shared by
Mrs. Billing (who, I assure you, sir, is an ornament to her sex); and
the total absence, sir, of all those comforts, which a man who has been
in the position I have been in, sir, and who has come to my years,
naturally expects, tends to make this occupation distasteful to me."

John, we are ashamed to say (at the moment forgetful of his own) felt
amused at the sorrows of the little man; though he smilingly assured him
that he thought a man of his evident abilities was thrown away in the
bush, and that he believed it would be considerably more to his
advantage, if he forsook so inhospitable a pursuit, as that in which he
was engaged, for something more congenial to his nature and compatible
with his education.

"My dear sir," replied the enthusiastic storekeeper, "I again thank you.
I perceive, sir, by your judicious remarks, you are a gentleman of no
ordinary discernment. The same idea has often struck me, sir; in fact, I
may say the 'wish is father to the thought;' but, unfortunately,
'thereby hangs a tale.' If you have no objection to listen to me, sir,
for a few minutes, I will explain the peculiarities of my position."

John having expressed himself desirous of hearing the explanation, Mr.
Billing proceeded. "You must know, sir, that after finishing a sound
general education at one of the public schools of London (you will
forgive me, sir, for commencing at the normal period of my career), my
father, who was a medical man of good practice but large family, sent
me, sir, to the desk. I, in fact, entered the counting-house of my
relatives, Messrs. Billing, Barlow, & Co., of Upper Thames Street, in
the city of London, a firm extensively engaged in the comb and brush
line, and enjoying a wide celebrity, sir, in the city and provinces. I
continued at my post, sir, for years, until I obtained the situation of
provincial traveller, which place I continued to fill for a lengthy
period. I need hardly say, sir, that in my peregrinations my name was
sufficient to command respect from our friends and constituents, who
naturally imagined that I must have been a partner in the firm I
represented; consequently, sir, my vicissitudes were almost imaginary,
and my comfort superior to the generality of commercial travellers. I
did not, of course, sir, enlighten the minds of our constituents on
their error, the effects of which I every day enjoyed; more especially
as the firm, from my long services, had solemnly pledged themselves to
receive me into their corporate body as a partner. The mutations of even
our nearest relatives, sir, are not to be depended upon; for I found in
my experience, that the word of a principal is not always a guarantee.
Upon urging the recognition of my claims, I found a spirit of
equivocation to exist in my friends; and such conduct not agreeing, sir,
with my views of integrity, I uttered some severe strictures on their
scandalous behaviour, and withdrew, sir, from the connexion.

"I must remark, sir, that about three years before this event (ah, sir!
that was a soft period of my life), I took unto myself an accomplished
lady as the wife of my bosom. I had been at great pains and expense,
sir, to consolidate our comfort in a nice little box at Brixton; and had
been blessed, sir, with two of our dear children. About this time the
fame of the Australian _El Dorado_ had spread far and wide; and, after
my rupture with my relatives, I was easily allured, sir, from my
peaceful hearth to seek my fortune in this land of promise; I say a land
of promise, sir, but I impugn not its fair name when I add that if it
ever was one to me, it failed to fulfil its obligations. I fear, sir, I
am tedious," said Mr. Billing, breaking off in his discourse, "for this
is a theme I feel I can dilate on;" but being assured by his companion
that he was by no means tiresome, he continued: "I told you, sir, that I
had taken great pains and expense to furnish my house at Brixton; and I
felt a reluctance to submit it to the hammer, and to sever myself and
family from the blissful fireside of our English home. However, sir,
avarice is strong in the minds of mortals; and visions of antipodean
wealth decided my fate, and caused the sacrifice of my contented home on
the altar of Plutus. I had heard that the difficulties of the diggings
were insuperable to genteel aspirants after gold; and I, therefore,
determined, sir, to be wise in my own generation, and, instead of
digging for the precious metal, to open an establishment where I could
procure it, sir, by vending articles of every-day use. For this purpose,
sir, I invested my capital in stock of which I had had practical
experience, that is, in combs and brushes; conjecturing, sir, that they
would be articles which most speculators would overlook, and,
consequently, be in great demand. In due time, sir, I arrived in the
colony with my goods, and lost not a moment unnecessarily in repairing
to the diggings. I need not recount, sir, the many difficulties which
beset my path; I believe they were common to all in similar
circumstances; and you, are no doubt, sir, sufficiently acquainted with
such scenes yourself. Suffice it to say, sir, that eventually I reached
my destination, and discovered, as we would say in mercantile parlance,
that my goods had arrived to a bad market. I assure, you, sir, the
horrid creatures who congregated at those diggings, notwithstanding that
their heads were perfect masses of hair, disdained, yes, absolutely
disdained, sir, the use of my wares.

"I then asked myself what was to be done; and while meditating on a
reply, sir, a viper was at hand to tempt me to my ruin. A plausible,
well-spoken gentleman, sir, introduced himself to me as a Mr. Black;
and proposed that as my goods were of no value on the diggings, but
were very saleable in Melbourne, I should take them back and commence
business there. He at the same time remarked, sir, that to commence
business it would be essential for me to have 'colonial experience;'
and doubting if I possessed such an acquirement, he, therefore, begged,
sir, to offer his services. He, in fact proposed that he should join
me in the undertaking; stating, sir, that through his general knowledge
of business, he was convinced that the speculation would succeed;
and suggested that we should at once proceed to Melbourne, sir, with
my goods. He would embark, he said, his capital in the concern, and
purchase an assortment of goods for a general business, which we were
to carry on under the name and style of 'Black and Billing.' This
he facetiously made the subject of a witticism, by remarking that
it would be rendered into 'Black Billy'[A] by the diggers when they
visited town; and would of a certainty ensure our success. I must
confess, sir, I was taken in by the scoundrel's wiles, and readily
entered into his scheme; the result of which is easily related. With
the expense of carrying my goods and myself backwards and forwards from
the diggings, my spare cash was all but expended; and when, sir, I
rejoined Mrs. Billing, whom I had left behind me, sir, in Melbourne,
until I should have become settled, I found myself almost penniless.
However, sir, although I'm a man of small stature, I am possessed of
considerable energy and, therefore, sir, set myself earnestly to work.
I soon procured a shop, though with miserable accommodation, and at
an enormous rental; but my partner assured me it was no matter, as we
would soon reap our harvest. I got my goods, sir, into the place, and
shortly afterwards my partner procured an extensive assortment also;
when we commenced our business, as I thought, under very favourable
auspices. But I soon discovered my mistake; for one fine morning
I found Mr. Black had decamped with all the money of the concern,
after converting as many of the goods into gold as he could. I then
discovered, sir, that the stock he had procured was upon credit, on the
strength of that which I had in the place at the time; and finding his
defalcations were greater than I could possibly meet, and my creditors
being fearful that I would follow his example, I was compelled to
relinquish my property to liquidate their claims. I then, sir, found
myself not only destitute, but homeless; with my wife and children
dependent upon me for their subsistence.

[Footnote A: A name applied by the diggers to the tin pot in which they
boil their water, as also to black hats.]

"I managed, sir, however, to procure employment by driving a cart; and,
after saving sufficient money, succeeded in getting round to Sydney,
where my wife, sir, had relations. They, sir, promised me assistance,
and after a short interval fulfilled their promise by establishing me in
a store at Armidale; where I got on, sir, pretty well, and would have
succeeded, but for the chicanery of some scoundrels, sir, by whom I lost
considerably, and was a second time reduced to labour for a support.
Through various vicissitudes, sir, I have come to this, and, you may
well imagine, that a man of my sensitive feeling and appreciation of
honour, in this menial capacity meets with nothing but disgust and
mortification. But, sir, I do not repine; however dark is the horizon
of my fate, despair does not enter my mind; the clouds of depression
must necessarily some day be removed; and then, sir, the sun of my
future will burst forth with a refulgence, the more resplendent from its
previous concealment. I desire, sir, in fact it is the fondest wish of
my heart, to return to Old England; but at present that cannot be, for
means, sir, are wanting; the all potent needful is required; money, sir.
But things must improve, they cannot last for ever thus; to think that
I, a gentleman, and Mrs. Billing a gentlewoman, should waste our very
existence, sir, in this wilderness; banished, sir, from the very
intercourse of man; expatriated, sir, from all we hold most dear, and,
forsaken, sir, by the society whence we are ostracized. The thought,
sir, is harrowing; yes, sir, harrowing beyond measure."

Mr. Billing was now getting pathetic and rather lachrymose; and his
confessions might have become of a confidential, and a painful nature,
had they not, very much to the relief of our hero, been cut short by the
opportune entrance of Mr. Rainsfield, who, when Mr. Billing had left the
room, addressed himself to John:

"I must apologize for keeping you waiting, Mr. Ferguson, but I was
engaged at the moment I heard of your call; and I thought by your
meeting me here it would save you from that pain which, otherwise, your
visit might have occasioned you, after the circumstances which
transpired when you last favoured us with your company."

"I am particularly indebted to you for your solicitation," replied John;
"but I may remark, I had sufficient confidence in myself to feel assured
that I would have neither received, nor given any pain in the manner in
which I presume you mean. And I may also state that, but for the desire
I had to give you some information that may be of vital importance to
you, I would have disdained your bidding."

"Then, may I beg to know the object of your call," enquired Rainsfield.

"I have two," replied John, "first I have been informed by one of my
black boys that you severely maltreated him; and considering myself
aggrieved by the act, as it was the means of depriving me of his
services, I beg you to explain the cause for so unwarrantable a
procedure."

"I justify my acts to no man," exclaimed Rainsfield, "and recognise no
blacks as others than members of their general community; who take upon
themselves to perform various acts of aggression. The laws of our
country not being potent enough to protect us from their marauding, we
do it ourselves; and if you think fit to gainsay our right, you know
what course to pursue; and now, sir, for your second object."

"I might with equal justice," said John, "decline to afford you the
information I by accident obtained, but I have no desire to show such
churlishness, and I believe that by judiciously acting upon it, you may
save yourself from some calamity; which I have good cause to believe is
impending. My two black boys who left me after your assault on one of
them, and who were only persuaded to return after their great corroboree
by my conciliating their chief, have informed me, in an imperfect
manner, that some overt act of aggression, on the part of the tribe, is
meditated; and it is to put you on your guard against this that I have
ventured to trouble you with my presence."

"Then it was at that corroboree on the spoliation of my property that
you heard this?" exclaimed Rainsfield. "My goods were purloined to feast
those imps of darkness, and you lent your presence to grace their
proceedings? I always thought you encouraged the villains in their
infamies, and I now perceive my suspicions were well founded. However,
sir, I am perfectly independent of you, and your so called information.
I have decided upon my course of action, and will not therefore trouble
you further to interest yourself in my behalf. You will no doubt
readily perceive that your presence here at any time would be extremely
unpleasant; and I must therefore request that you absent yourself from
my house as much as possible. I shall now wish you good day;" saying
which Rainsfield quitted the room.

John Ferguson was so taken by surprise at the violent tirade he had just
listened to, that he had had no idea of defending himself from an
accusation, the manifest absurdity of which merely struck him as
contemptuous. But he felt a source of grief at being summarily estranged
from the other members of the family; and whatever his feelings