Behind all again towered lofty, dark hanging woods, closing the prospect.
This is Toonarbin, where Mary Hawker, with her leal and trusty cousin Tom Troubridge for partner, has pitched her tent, after all her spasmodic, tragical troubles, and here she is leading as happy, and by consequence as uninteresting, an existence as ever fell to the lot of a handsome woman yet.
Mary and Miss Thornton had stayed with the Buckleys until good cousin Tom had got a house ready to receive them, and then they moved up and took possession.

Mary and Tom were from the first copartners, and, latterly, Miss Thornton had invested her money, about 2,000 pounds, in the station.

Matters were very prosperous, and, after a few years, Tom began to get weighty and didactic in his speech, and to think of turning his attention to politics.
To Mary the past seemed like a dream--as an old dream, well-nigh forgotten.

The scene was so changed that at times she could hardly believe that all those dark old days were real.

Could she, now so busy and happy, be the same woman who sat worn and frightened over the dying fire with poor Captain Saxon?
Is she the same woman whose husband was hurried off one wild night, and transported for coining?
Or is all that a hideous imagination?
No.