Her head felt painful from the effects of the blow
she had received, but her one thought was to get home
to Archie and Selina, so gathering up the reins she
sent Rory along as quickly as she could. When
she drove up to the gate Archie and Selina were both
out to receive her, and when the former went to lift
her off the trap, he gave a cry of horror at seeing
her dishevelled appearance and the blood on her face.
‘God save us!’ he cried, lifting her down;
‘what’s come t’ ye, and where’s
the nugget?’ seeing it was not in the trap.
‘Lost!’ she said, in a stupor, feeling
her head swimming, ’but there’s worse.’
‘Worse?’ echoed Selina and Archie, who
were both standing looking terrified at one another.
‘Yes,’ said Mrs Villiers, in a hollow
whisper, leaning forward and grasping Archie’s
coat, ‘I’ve killed my husband,’ and
without another word, she fell fainting to the ground.
At the same time Vandeloup and Pierre walked into
the bar at the Wattle Tree Hotel, and each had a glass
of brandy, after which Pierre went to his bed, and
Vandeloup, humming a gay song, turned on his heel
and went to the theatre.
A GLIMPSE OF BOHEMIA
‘Ah!’ says Thackeray, pathetically,
’Prague is a pleasant city, but we all lose
our way to it late in life.’
The Wopples family were true Bohemians, and had not
yet lost their way to the pleasant city. They
accepted good and bad fortune with wonderful equanimity,
and if their pockets were empty one day, there was
always a possibility of their being full the next.
When this was the case they generally celebrated the
event by a little supper, and as their present season
in Ballarat bid fair to be a successful one, Mr Theodore
Wopples determined to have a convivial evening after
the performance was over.
That the Wopples family were favourites with the Ballarat
folk was amply seen by the crowded house which assembled
to see ’The Cruet Stand’. The audience
were very impatient for the curtain to rise, as they
did not appreciate the overture, which consisted of
airs from ‘La Mascotte’, adapted for the
violin and piano by Mr Handel Wopples, who was the
musical genius of the family, and sat in the conductor’s
seat, playing the violin and conducting the orchestra
of one, which on this occasion was Miss Jemima Wopples,
who presided at the piano. The Wopples family
consisted of twelve star artistes, beginning with
Mr Theodore Wopples, aged fifty, and ending with Master
Sheridan Wopples, aged ten, who did the servants’
characters, delivered letters, formed the background
in tableaux, and made himself generally useful.
As the cast of the comedy was only eight, two of the
family acted as the orchestra, and the remaining two
took money at the door. When their duties in
this respect were over for the night, they went into
the pit to lead the applause.
