ad done; and by
dinner-time that evening--or, as it is always called in the bush,
tea-time--they had all made each other's acquaintance, and both the
youths were worshipping at the new shrine.

At tea the talk flowed freely, and the two bush boys, shy at first,
began to expand as Mary Grant talked to them. Put a pretty girl and a
young and impressionable bushman together, and in the twinkling of an
eye you have a Sir Galahad ready to do anything for the service of his
lady.

Lightheartedly they consented to stay the night, in the hope of seeing
Hugh, to deliver their message about the weaners--they seemed to have
satisfactorily arranged the question of mustering. And when Miss Grant
said, "Won't your sheep be dying of thirst in that paddock, where there
is no water?" both brothers replied, "Oh, we'll be off at crack of dawn
in the morning and fix 'em up all right."

"They always say that," said the old lady, "and generally stay three
days. I expect they'll make it four, now that you're here."

CHAPTER X. A LAWYER IN THE BUSH.

Gavan Blake, attorney and solicitor, sat in his office at Tarrong,
opening his morning's letters. The office was in a small weatherboard
cottage in the "main street" of Tarrong (at any rate it might fairly
claim to be the main street, as it was the only street that had any
houses in it). The front room, where he sat, was fitted up with a table
and a set of pigeon-holes full of dusty papers, a leather couch, a small
fire-proof safe, and a book-case containing about equal proportions of
law-books and novels. A few maps of Tarrong township and neighbouring
stations hung on the walls. The wooden partition of the house only ran
up to the rafters, and over it could plainly be heard his housekeeper
scrubbing his bedroom. Across the little passage was his sitting-room,
furnished in the style of most bachelors' rooms, an important item of
furniture being a cupboard where whisky was always to be found. At the
back of the main cottage were servants' quarters and kitchen. Behind
the house, on a spare allotment, were two or three loose-boxes for
racehorses, a saddle-room and a groom's room. This was the whole
establishment. A woman came in every day to do up his rooms from the
hotel, where he had his meals. It was an inexpensive mode of life, but
one that conduced to the drinking of a good many whiskies-and-sodas
at the hotel with clients and casual callers, and to a good deal of
card-playing a