People talked, of course, but Madame did not mind. She had tried
married life, and had been disappointed; her old ideas of belief in
human nature had passed away; in short, the girl who had been the
belle of Melbourne as Miss Curtis and Mrs Villiers had disappeared,
and the stern, clever, cynical woman who managed the Pactolus claim
was a new being called 'Madame Midas'.
CHAPTER II
SLIVERS
Everyone has heard of the oldest inhabitant--that wonderful piece of
antiquity, with white hair, garrulous tongue, and cast-iron memory,-
-who was born with the present century--very often before it--and
remembers George III, the Battle of Waterloo, and the invention of
the steam-engine. But in Australia, the oldest inhabitant is
localized, and rechristened an early settler. He remembers Melbourne
before Melbourne was; he distinctly recollects sailing up the Yarra
Yarra with Batman, and talks wildly about the then crystalline
purity of its waters--an assertion which we of to-day feel is open
to considerable doubt. His wealth is unbounded, his memory
marvellous, and his acquaintances of a somewhat mixed character,
comprising as they do a series of persons ranging from a member of
Parliament down to a larrikin.
Ballarat, no doubt, possesses many of these precious pieces of
antiquity hidden in obscure corners, but one especially was known,
not only in the Golden City, but throughout Victoria.
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