k mumbled something.

"Well, I can, then. I'm not one of your helpless English girls who
can't even stick a stamp on a letter for themselves."

"Oh, you've been in England, then?"

"Haven't I! For three years. Not long, but still I went about a good
deal."

"Where?" he asked eagerly.

She named several places; one at which he himself had stayed on the
occasion of a shooting party. Here was an additional link in common.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Has our young buffalo hunter shot all the game on the farm, Greenoak?"
said old Hesketh, one day as the two sat smoking on the stoep.

"Why?"

"Because he don't seem over keen on going after it these days. His
gun'll get rusty if he don't mind," chuckled the old man, reaching a
handful of tobacco out of his pocket and cramming his pipe.

"The young folks seem to have cottoned to each other," he went on,
between puns. The other had no need to follow the glance--for "the
young folks" aforesaid had been visible to him for some time away down
the kloof, and the sight, even before his companion's remark, had set
Harley Greenoak thinking.

So far his charge had given him no trouble. Twice he had got him out of
a situation which would certainly have cost him his life; in other
words, had saved his life twice. That, however, was all in the bond.
He thought nothing of that. But here loomed a complication which
neither himself nor Sir Anson had foreseen. Both had only taken into
consideration mere difficulties or dangers of field and flood; but here
was a new side to his responsibility. With his keen insight into
character he had sized up old Hesketh's niece on very short
acquaintance; and his private opinion was that whoever succeeded in
winning the affections of this girl--whether Dick Selmes, or anybody
else--would be a very lucky fellow. But would Sir Anson be likely to
share this opinion? That was the question, and in all probability one
to be answered with a negative. He might have other views for his son,
or he might object to the latter contracting any tie for the present--or
all sorts of reasons. Harley Greenoak realised that he had some cause
for anxiety.

If anything should come of this matter, and Sir Anson considered that he
had failed in his responsibility, he would unhesitatingly forego any
remuneration; but his anxiety rested on higher grounds than pecuniary
loss. He had a great liking for his