ed by another sentiment as he heard her
speaking of Dickson in a manner which suggested that in her eyes he was
the least offender of the two. The words which rose to his lips were
angry words, and he checked them because, for a moment, she looked up
and met his glance. The angry words died down, but no others took their
place, and he was once more awkward and ill at ease.

"What else did Nellie Murray say?" she asked, still anxious to avoid
the embarrassment of silence, and unfortunately striking again a line of
thought in his mind which did not make for peace.

Nellie Murray, as a matter of fact, had thrown out hints, not by any
means too obscure, to the effect that if he hastened to Barellan he
might find Ailleen enjoying the society of Dickson to the exclusion of
all else. That had been the reason of his haste; that had been the
reason of his precipitate action when he found she was alone--fearing
that at any moment Dickson might appear. In the confusion of his mind
subsequent on her repelling his advances, he had lost sight,
temporarily, of the suspicions Nellie's words had roused in his mind.
Ailleen's reference brought them again to his memory. What else did
Nellie say? It was not so much what she said as what she implied. Before
he had gone away from Birralong--before the commencement of the tiff
which had come between Ailleen and himself, and which was so steadily
increasing in influence and importance, though its origin was impossible
to indicate--Nellie's opinion of Ailleen was the same as Ailleen's
opinion of Nellie, the opinion of one girl friend for her bosom
companion--enthusiastic, unmeasured, and, above all things, loyal. There
had certainly not been an excess of loyalty in Nellie's manner, or in
her words, when she urged him to go to Barellan; and he, remembering it,
was about to say something to that effect, when Ailleen cut him short by
exclaiming--

"Oh, look! There's Mrs. Dickson coming over to the house."

He looked where she pointed and saw the form of a woman walking slowly
along by the hand-rail. The sound of a horse galloping made him turn
round, when he saw Willy Dickson going straight for the hand-rail near
the house, and near where his grey was hitched. As Dickson came up he
tried to make his horse jump; instead, it baulked, and blundered into
the rail, carrying away some distance of it and liberating Tony's horse.

In the confusion of recovering the startled grey neither of the three