CHAPTER IX.
Nobble During the two days which Dick and Caldigate spent together in Melbourne Mrs.Smith's name was not mentioned between them.

They were particularly civil each to the other and went to work together, making arrangements at a bank as to their money, taking their places, despatching their luggage, and sorting their belongings as though there had been no such woman as Mrs.Smith on board the Goldfinder.

Dick, though he had been inclined to grumble when his mystery had been taken out of his hands,--who had, of course, been jealous when he saw that the lady had discarded her old hat and put on new ribbons, not for him, but for another,--was too conscious of the desolation to which he would be subjected by quarrelling with his friend.

He felt himself unable to go alone, and was therefore willing that the bygones of the ship should be bygones.

Caldigate, on the other hand, acknowledged to himself that he owed some reparation to his companion.