Page:Authors daughter v1.djvu/126

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122
THE AUTHOR'S DAUGHTER.

people can make themselves so obnoxious as on a long voyage. When they arrived at Melbourne he found that it was rather overdone at the time with educated gentlemen, and that obtaining the sort of employment he wanted was no easy matter.

A ready writer is always sure to be able to make a living in England, though it may not be a luxurious one. But it is putting the round man into the square hole to bring a man with a special literary talent, like Gerald Staunton's, for careful criticism, and light essays, and philological research, into a bustling city like that of Melbourne. It is only on the staff of a newspaper that any one can gain a certain income, great or small, as the case may be, by literary work. Dr. Hudson had absolutely prohibited any night-work, and besides Gerald was totally ignorant of colonial politics and colonial life, and it would take him months to learn. He grew nervous as week after week his slender resources diminished, and there was no nearer prospect of success. The very youth, and life, and hurry of Melbourne dispirited and stunned the old Palladium critic, and when he was told that Adelaide was a quieter and slower place, it occurred to him that he might be more easily suited there. When he had arrived the literary world was still more