Romantic tragedy of a French couple in Victoria in the early 1850s, narrated by the kindly Irish housekeeper who sheltered the wife while the husband was at the diggings. Obviously of good family they had run away to Victoria but unlucky on the diggings, the husband took a job stone-breaking, caught consumption and died - his wife soon following. Their child returned to France with his noble grandfather. Warm, humorous Irish wit a good foil to tragedy. References to the cruelty of the early convict days. (PB)