and talked of as the lady who wrote for the newspapers. I did not like
it even to be supposed of myself, but Mary was indignant, and I wrote
an injured letter to my friend. He apologized, and said he thought I
would be proud of doing disinterested work, and he was sorry the
mistake had been made regarding the sister who did it. Of course, I
forgave him. He was the last man in the world to give pain to anyone,
and I highly admired him for his disinterested work on The Register. He
reluctantly accepted 1,000 pounds when the paper was sold. He must have
lost much more through neglect of his own affairs at such a critical time.
He was taking a holiday with his sister Eliza in England and France,
where the beautiful widowed sister was settled as Madam Dubois, and I
asked him to take "Clara Morison" to Smith, Elder & Co.'s, in London,
and to say nothing to anybody about it; but before it was placed he
had to return to Adelaide, and in pursuance of my wishes, left it with
my other good friend, Mr. Bakewell, who also happened to be visiting
England with his family at the time--1853-4. I had an idea that, as
there was so much interest in Australia and its gold, I might get 100
pounds for the novel. Mr. Bakewell wrote a preface from which I extract a
passage:--"The writer's aim seems to have been to present some picture
of the state of society in South Australia in the years 1851-2, when
the discovery of gold in the neighbouring province of Victoria took
place. At this time, the population of South Australia numbered between
seventy and eighty thousand souls, the greater part of whom were
remarkable for their intelligence, their industry, and their
enterprise, which, in the instance of the Burra Burra, and other copper
mines had met with such signal success. When it became known that gold
in vast quantities could be found within 300 miles of their own
territory, they could not remain unmoved. The exodus was almost
complete, and entirely without parallel. In those days there was no
King in Israel, and every woman did what was right in her own sight."