'
'I tell ye I'll no have him back,' said Archie, firmly; 'he's ain o'
they foreign bodies full of revolutions an' confusion o' tongues,
and I'd no feel safe i' the mine if I kenned that deil was doon
below wi' his dirk.'
'I really think he ought to go,' said Madame, looking rather
anxiously at Vandeloup, 'unless, M. Vandeloup, you do not want to
part with him.'
'Oh, I don't want him,' said Vandeloup, hastily; 'as I told you, he
was only one of the sailors on board the ship I was wrecked in, and
he followed me up here because I was the only friend he had, but now
he has got money--or, at least, his wages must come to a good
amount.'
'Forty pounds,' interposed Archie.
'So I think the best thing he can do is to go to Melbourne, and see
if he can get back to France.'
'And you, M. Vandeloup?' asked Dr Gollipeck, who had been listening
to the young Frenchman's remarks with great interest; 'do you not
wish to go to France?'
Vandeloup rose coolly from his chair, and, picking up his book and
hat, turned to the doctor.
'My dear Monsieur,' he said, leaning up against the wall in a
graceful manner, 'I left France to see the world, so until I have
seen it I don't think it would be worthwhile to return.'
'Never go back when you have once put your hand to the plough,'
observed Selina, opportunely, upon which Vandeloup bowed to her.
'Mademoiselle,' he said, quietly, with a charming smile, 'has put
the matter into the shell of a nut; Australia is my plough, and I do
not take my hand away until I have finished with it.
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