pany that
night, and after tea, when Eweword caught her alone for a few moments
as I was leaving the room, he said--

"So you cleared the red-headed mug out after all. Andrew says it was
alright. You won't listen to me, but you haven't chucked the wash-up
water on me yet, that's one thing." His complacence was very
pronounced. To his surprise Dawn made no reply, but biting her lip to
keep back her tears, walked out of the room, and in the dark of the
passage smote her dimpled palms together, exclaiming--

"Would to heaven I had thrown the water over this galoot instead of
_him_," and the thermometer of "Dora's" self-satisfaction fell
considerably when she did not appear again that evening.

That night, when the waning moon got far enough on her westward way to
surmount the old house on the knoll beside the Noonoon and cast its
shadow in the deep clear water, the silver beams strayed through a
little window facing the great ranges, and found the features of a
beautiful sleeper disfigured by weeping; but youth's rest was sound
despite the tear-stains, and the old moon smiled at such ephemeral
sorrow. The night wind coming down the gorges with the river sighed
along the valley as the moon remembered all the faces which, though
tearless under her nocturnal inspection, yet were pale from the inward
sobs, only giving outward evidence in bleaching locks and shadowy
eyes. Even within sound of the engines roaring down the spur, many of
the little night-wrapped houses, hard set upon the plain, had inmates
kept from sleep by deeper sorrows than Dawn had ever known.

The first fortnight of Ernest's absence, believed by his doubting
young lady to be final, was a stirring time in Noonoon, and
particularly full at Clay's. Jam-making was the star item on the
latter's domestic bill. Baskets and baskets of golden oranges and
paler lemons and shaddocks were converted into jam and marmalade, and
ranged on the shelves of the already replete storehouse, in readiness
to tempt the summer palate of the week-end boarders which should
appear when the days stretched out again. We were occupied in this
business to such an extent that the sight of oranges became a
weariness, and Andrew averred that the very name of marmalade gave him
the pip.

At night we enjoyed the diversion of the meetings, and talk and gossip
of them made conversation for the days. The previously mentioned
political addresses were but mild fanfares by comparison with the