r. But Rupert,
Sylvia, and I can remember him perfectly," replied Nealie.

"It is certain that he will not know you if he has not seen you for
seven years," said the gentleman; and then he asked, with a great deal
of interest in his tone: "and are you travelling all that distance
without a chaperon of any sort?"

"I have my brothers, and I do not need anyone else," she answered,
looking up at him in surprise at his question. "I have always had to
take care of myself, for our great-aunt, with whom we lived, was very
old and feeble; for two years before she died she did not leave her
room, so it would not have done for me to require taking care of, seeing
that it was not possible for anyone to spare time to look after me."

"I think that you must be a very remarkable young lady, for I thought
that all girls required someone to take care of them, unless they were
colonials that is, and you are not that," he said, in the manner of one
who seeks information.

"No, we are only going to be," she said, with a happy little laugh, for
it was fine to have achieved one's heart's desire with so little delay
in the getting, and she was setting her face towards the new and untried
life with radiant happiness in her heart.

"I am going to Cape Town, so I shall have to say goodbye to you when
your voyage is only half done, although it would have been a great
pleasure to me to have seen you safely ashore and in the care of your
father. Does he meet you in Sydney?" asked the gentleman, when he had
told Nealie that his name was Melrose, and that he was at the bottom as
English as she was herself.

"I don't know; I suppose he will, for Mr. Runciman would have written to
tell him the name of the ship we were coming by," said Nealie; but now
there was a dubious note in her tone, for she was trying to remember
whether Mr. Runciman had said anything about having written to her
father. She had thought of writing herself, but had refrained from doing
it because of the feeling of hurt pride which was still strong upon her,
as it had been ever since she read the letter which was not meant for
her.

"What will you do if he does not?" asked Mr. Melrose.

"Oh, we shall find our way out to Hammerville! That is the name of the
place where he lives. There are seven of us, you see; it is not as if we
were just one or two," she answered brightly.

"Hammerville? I wonder whether that is the Hammerville in the
Murrumbidgee district, where Tom Flet