'It wasn't
banking, it wasn't business, that cheque,' Sir George was bantered long
years after; 'but perhaps it was better.'
'Ah!' he laughed back, 'I'm benefiting myself now, for it seems that I
returned thirty-eight shillings more than was due, and that therefore I
have a balance to draw upon.'
XIII OCEANA AND THE PROPHETESS
Sir George Grey rode hard and far over the South African karoo, serving
the Queen's writ in letters of gold. When he rode late, and the stars
were ablaze, his saddle held a dreamer in dreamland.
What a lightsome new world! The sun had bathed it in the day; night
brought another radiance. Here was the emblem of all the New World should
be to the Old. Not yet, perhaps, in the full, for there were things to
do, but soon, when the outposts of empire, stretching to Australia, New
Zealand, and beyond, had come into their own. Yes, those glorious stars
overhead were only meant to shine on a New World reflecting their
brightness!
One winked, and Sir George smiled. Sir John Herschel had visited the
Cape to fix the southern stars. The recollection carried Sir George Grey
to the astronomer's part in quite a different affair. He had the tale
from Herschel himself, and classed it with the somewhat relative
incidents of Carlyle and Babbage.
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