THE township of Lively Creek is not the sort of place in which one would
expect a romance to happen; and yet, in the year 18--, when I accepted
the secretaryship to the Mechanics' Institute, occurred a series of
circumstances which had in them all the elements of the wildest French
fiction.
The unwonted impetus given to social relations, which was effected by
the "opening up" of the Great Daylight Reef, brought together those
incongruous particles of adventurous humanity which are to be found
floating about the gold-mining centres of Australian population, and in
six months the quiet village--up to that time notorious for its extreme
simplicity--had become a long street, surrounded by mounds, shafts, and
engine-houses, and boasting a court-house, a mechanics' institute,
half-a-dozen places of (variously conducted) religious worship, and some
twenty public-houses.
The thirst for knowledge which attends upon worldly success soon made my
office a laborious one, for, in addition to my duties as librarian, I
was expected to act as master of the ceremonies, conductor of
conversaziones, curator of a museum of curiosities, and theatrical
manager. The committee of management were desirous that no attraction
which might increase the funds of the institution should be passed over,
and when Mademoiselle Pauline Christoval (of the Theatres Royal,
Honolulu, Manilla, Singapore, and Popocatapetl) offered a handsome rent
to be permitted to play for six nights in the great hall, I was
instructed to afford every facility to that distinguished actress.
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