"No, Mary," said I, "do not think so unjustly of me, as to suppose I could do that. I love you too well, to stand in the way of your receiving the reward you have deserved; and, besides, you should not desert Forter, whom you have followed so far--now that the poor fellow is in affliction. My affection for you is too sincere, to think of allowing you to commit so great a wrong? "Having delivered this exordium, I turned and left her. Now that is what I call revenge. What's your opinion?" "What is revenge to one man, may not be to another," was my answer. "If it pleases you to act so, of course, I have nothing to say against it." "And what would _you_ do?" "I should give the woman some money, enough to enable her to return to her parents. As for the man, I should leave him to his fate." "Then you would act very foolishly,--as I would, if I followed your advice. The woman having got home, would be there to annoy me. I wish to go back to my native place; and be happy there for the rest of my days. How could that be--living along side a wife who had so disgraced me?" I could say nothing more to dissuade Farrell from his purpose; and we parted company--he shortly after starting for Melbourne, to take passage for New York. The after-fate of his faithless wife, and her wretched paramour, some other must record: for, from that hour, I never heard of either of them again. Volume Three, Chapter III. THE RUSH TO AVOCA. After passing four or five days in looking about the Canadian, Eureka, and Gravel-pits, "leads" on the Ballarat Gold-fields, and finding no favourable opportunity of getting into a good claim, I determined to proceed to Avoca river, for which place a big "rush" was just starting-- that, by all accounts, would turn out a success. The day after I had formed this resolution, I saw a man with a horse and dray, just departing for Avoca. The man was willing to take a light load of diggers' "swags;" and, rolling up my tent and blankets, I put them upon his dray. The drayman did not succeed in getting all the freight he required: for there was but one other digger besides myself, who furnished him with anything to carry. As he, and a partner he had, were anxious to reach the new gold-field as soon as possible, they determined to start, without waiting to make up a load. All being ready, we set out at once for the "sweet vale of Avoca." The drayman's partner was a man known in the diggings, by the name of "Bat." I had often seen "Bat," and was acquainted with two or three other diggers, who knew him well. He was famed at Ballarat, for having the largest mind of any man in the place; but it was also generally known, that in his mind, the proportion of selfishness, to all other feelings and faculties, was ninety-nine to one. The reason why Bat's soul was thought to be so large was, that, otherwise it could not have contained the amount of disgusting selfishness, which it daily exhibited.