‘Mr. Smith! a station of his own!’ said the landlord in faint tones, as of one preparing to swoon. ‘Do you know who you’re a-talkin’ of, sir? why, that’s Habstinens Levison, Hesquire, the richest man in Australia. Station of his own! Good lor—(‘scuse me, sir, you ain’t long from ’ome, sir?); why, he’s got _thirty stations_, sir, with more than a hundred thousand head of cattle, and half a million of sheep! So I’ve heard tell, leastwise.’ Mr. Neuchamp thought it would not be inappropriate if _he_ fainted after this astounding revelation. He had heard Mr. Frankston tell a story or two of the wealthy and eccentric Abstinens Levison, and here he had met him in the flesh, and had been rather proud of his penetration in summing him up as an overseer on his promotion, who had saved a few hundred pounds and would be a squatter before he died. ‘Mr. Levison was here one day, sir,’ continued the landlord, ‘callin’ hisself Smith, or Jones, or something; he don’t want to be worrited by charity-agents and such; when the clergyman spotted him and asks him for something towards the Church of Hengland there—‘andsome building, ain’t it, sir?—what I call respectable and substantial—he writes him out a cheque very quiet and crumples it up and gives it ’im; when he looks at it outside, blest if it warn’t for five hundred pounds!’ ‘I suppose the reverend gentleman was contented with that,’ said Ernest, thinking of the stranger’s non-committal remarks as they passed the same building. ‘Not he—parsons ain’t never contented, ’specially those as has a turn for begging for a good object—they say. Next time he passes through, our reverend thought he’d touch him a bit more. “Mr. Levison,” says he, “this here beauteous structure as you’ve so magnificently contributed to, ain’t got no lightning-conductor, and it’s a pity such a pooty building should be hinjured by the hangry helements,” says he. “Look here,” says Levison, “I’ve helped you to build the church, and given my share; if God Almighty chooses to knock it down again, He can do so, it’s no business of mine any further,” he says.’