My Brilliant Career

Weeks pass in a blur when Harry shows up at Caddagat. Sybylla notices he looks different, with his face drawn. He confesses to her that after a series of unexpected business failures, including ill-advised investments and a bank failure, that he has lost the title to Five-Bob. His assets are drained. By his own admission, he is a “pauper” (70). Nobly he frees Sybylla from her obligation to marry him. Overwhelmed, however, Sybylla promises to marry him as soon as she turns 21. “I would marry you,” she tells Harry, “if you were poor as a cow” (70). Harry departs. “Men,” Sybylla decides, “are very weak and simple” How then, she asks, is the “world made for men?” (70).

Within weeks, Harry returns and tells Sybylla he is off to Sydney to recoup his fortune. He promises he will return before she turns 21. Sybylla promises to stay true, and as he departs, she cries uncontrollably. She recalls, “I loved Harry as much as I could ever love anyone” (72).

Into the new year, Sybylla misses Harry but finds contentment in her routine: “I forgot all my wild unattainable ambitions in the little pleasures of everyday life” (73).