arms akimbo and his mouth open, and when she asked him
how he liked being on the station he said, "Oh, it's not too bad,"
accompanying his remark with a sickly grin that nearly earned him
summary dismissal.

The young lady returned to the house in rather a sharp temper, and found
Hugh standing by a cart, which had just got back with her shipwrecked
luggage.

"Well, Miss Grant," he said, "the things are pretty right. The water
went down in an hour or so, and the luggage on the top only got a little
wetting--just a wave now and again. How have you been getting on?"

"Not at all well," she laughed. "I don't understand the people here.
I will get you to take me round before I do another thing. It is so
different from England. Are you sure my clothes are all right?"

"I can't be sure, of course, but you can unpack them as soon as you
like."

It was not long before the various boxes were opened. Ellen Harriott
was called in to assist, and the two girls had a real good afternoon,
looking at and talking over clothes and jewellery. The things had come
fairly well out of the coach disaster. When an English firm makes a
water-tight cover for a bag or box, it is water-tight; even the waters
of Kiley's River had swept over the canvas of Miss Grant's luggage in
vain. And when the sacred boxes were opened, what a treasure-trove was
unveiled!

The noblest study of mankind is man, but the most fascinating study of
womankind is another woman's wardrobe, and the Australian girl found
something to marvel at in the quality of the visitor's apparel.
Dainty shoes, tailor-made jackets, fashionable short riding-habits,
mannish-looking riding-boots, silk undergarments, beautiful jewellery,
all were taken out of their packages and duly admired. As each
successive treasure was produced, Ellen Harriott's eyes grew rounder
with astonishment; and when, out of a travelling bag, there appeared
a complete dressing-table outfit of silverware--silver-backed
hair-brushes, silver manicure set, silver handglass, and so forth--she
drew a long breath of wonder and admiration.

It was her first sight of the vanities of the world, the things that she
had only dreamed of. The outfit was not anything extraordinary from an
English point of view, but to the bush-bred girl it was a revelation.

"What beautiful things!" she said. "Now, when you go visiting to a
country-house in England, do you always take things like these, all
these riding-boots and things