t. They had hunted together once or twice on the Campagna, that winter when they had met in Rome. It was difficult to avoid retrospect, but Bridget seemed determined to keep it within con

; and Zack Duppo the horsebreaker, whose Christmas pudding had been a culinary triumph, and the loyalty of faithful Wombo, who had done violence to all his savage instincts in acting as house-servant until the advent of the Malay boy Kuppi. She told of her first experience of a summer out West. The frying of eggs in the sun on a

ooking person who seems to keep house here for stray gentlem

's lip

wish there was one bold enough to do it. She had to be asked to take a change of air because there was rivalry about her between the buyer of a Meat Preserving Establishment and the chief butcher at Tunumburra. Fair Helen scorned them both. Result: The two buyers bought beasts elsewhere and, as you would understand, on a cattle station, butchers may not be f

d the landscape. They were riding at the edge of the immense sandy plain, patched with brown jaggled grass and parched brambles and prickly lignum vitae-nothing

into a scrub o

sing country I have ever

Then the grass is green, the creeks are running, and at this time the dead bra

ould be wasting your youth and beauty in thi

tant turned her face up towards th

ian squatters, your husband hasn't capital enough

ooked at him, with

understood his position

hould really like to remind you t

e the truth!' he s

she asked, reining in her hors

red, and he as well as herself was conscious

y me if I had been strong e

s strong enough to do-if he

which, THEN, I should have had to place my wife-what could I do-except withdraw? But you suffered, Bridget,' he went on vehemently. 'Not so much as I did-but still you suffered.

e,' she answere

it has seemed to me that the invisible wires ha

said again, as if force

at's the truth you owe me. If after-after we parted in that dreadful way, I had gone back, had thrown up everything, had said to you, "Co

h her puzzling smile, 'that the s

n get out of you-that grudging admission? Well, never mind, I am satisfied

rse of the O'Hara's is upon me. Almost all of them hav

and they cantered on over the plain. Aft

evening to dine at the Home, and came down i

. And besides, the piano had been attacked by white ants, and the tuner had not been so far up the river for a long time. It was inspiring to

Maule. Beside Maule knew parts of the world where Ninnis had been. It was curious to see the American-isms crop out. Ninnis considered Maule a person of parts and of practical experience. He said to himself that the Boss had done wisely in leaving Maule at the head-station while they were short-handed. Maule showed great interest in Bush matters-sa

shooting game in the lagoon, had disappeared in the night. Circumstantial evidence pointed to Wombo as the thief. Cudgee owned to having seen him skulking among the Gully rocks. A deserte

e. McKeith sent not a word of his doings, and Harry the

hat sinister lull which comes after the sudden shock of an earthquake a

d the stockmen on the run, while Maule-a book and a sandwich in his

aule and Ninnis, or with Maule alone. She found relief from painful thoughts of Colin in the excitement and emotion with which Maule's society provided her. She went with him on several occasions behind the tailing-mob, though ordinarily, she could not endure being at close quarters with cattle. But it interested her

together on the veranda he had begun again to make love to her, and in still more passionate earnest-had held her hands-had tried to kiss he

it; nevertheless, in imagination gave herself up to it, as the opium-smoke

he had read of the effects of some unho

really love Maule-that her f

e would convey to her in half words, looks, and tones that he had reason to believe Colin unworthy of her-that her husband had led the life of an ordinary bushman, and had fully availed himself of such material pleasures as might have come to his hand. The veiled questi

tiful, how sane, how uplifting it seemed, compared with the feverish haschisch dream in which she was now living. Restless under the obsession, she wandered up the gully and, as she sat among the rocks, wrestled with her black angel-and conquered. Clearly there was but one thing to do. She must send Maule away at once befo

uld probably come to look for her here. So having arrived at her decision and wishing to put of