uke did care for his wife. He will be broken-hearted.'

She stood gazing out upon the plain, on which the mist was gathering.
From across the gully sounded the cattle being driven home.

When she turned to him, her eyes were full of tears.

'I think I'll go now.' She said simply. 'Colin will show you your room.
He's there--coming up from the lagoon.'

She went through a French window lower down the veranda into her
bedroom, and Maule descended the steps into the garden and presently
joined his host.

CHAPTER 15

A little later, McKeith having tubbed and changed his riding clothes,
came to his wife's room. He looked very large and clean and fair, and
the worst of his temper had worn off in a colloquy with Ninnis, and the
imparting and receiving of local news. But his eyes were still gloomy,
and his mouth sullenly determined. And he had remembered with remorse
that he should have softened to Bridget the sudden news of her friend's
death. The sight of her now--a small tragic figure with a white face
and burning eyes, in a black dress into which she had changed, deepened
his compunction.

'I am very sorry, Biddy.' He tried to put his arm round her shoulder,
but she drew back.

'What are you sorry for, Colin--that Rosamond Tallant is dead, and that
you forgot to tell me, and let me hear it from--Willoughby Maule?' She
paused perceptibly before pronouncing the christian name, 'Or that you
behaved like an inhuman monster to those wretched Blacks, and refused
me the only thing I have asked you for a good time past?'

Her tone roused his rancour anew.

'I think we'll drop the subject of the Blacks; there is no earthly use
in talking about them, I make it a rule never to threaten without
performing, and I'd punish them again, just the same--or more
severely--under similar circumstances.'

'Very well. You will do as you please, and I shall do as I please, too.'

'What do you mean?'

'Just what I say. I agree with you that there's no use in discussing
things about which we hold such different opinions. Quite simply, I
can't forgive you for this afternoon's work.'

'Biddy, you exaggerate things.'

'Perhaps. But I don't think so in this case. Let me go out, Colin.
Dinner must be ready by now.'

'No. I've got something to ask you first. I want to know why you looked
so upset--as if you were going to faint--when that man came up to you
to-day?'

'Naturally, I was startled. I had no idea he was in Australia