plied. "In fact, we were talking over that very thing on the way
down."

"Sure the children won't disturb her, Mr Milne?"

"Well, it hasn't looked like it up till now. Those youngsters of yours
don't seem particularly obstreperous, Bentley, and Mrs Carhayes appears
rather to have taken a fancy to them than otherwise."

"If there's a kind sweet lady in this world, Mr Milne, it's Mrs
Carhayes," said the overseer earnestly. "I know the wife'll make her
right comfortable while she's here. She'll save her all bother over
housekeeping or anything of that sort. Excuse the question, but is she
likely to be making a long stay?"

"I shouldn't wonder. You see, there's nowhere else for her to go, and
the quiet of this place suits her after all she has gone through. And
she has gone through some pretty lively times, I need hardly tell you."

"I should think so. Why, what a narrow escape she had that time you
were bringing her away from Anta's Kloof, when the trap broke down.
That was a frightful position for any lady to be in, in all conscience."

"Oh, you heard of that, did you? Ah, I forgot. It was in every paper
in the Colony--more or less inaccurately reported, of course," added
Eustace drily, and then the two men lit their pipes and chatted for an
hour or so about the war and its events.

"By the way, Bentley," said Eustace presently. "Talking about that
outbuilding. I've decided to knock out the partition--it's only a
wooden one--between the two rooms next to the storeroom, turn them into
one, and use it as a bedroom for myself. The house is rather congested
with the lot of us in it, after all. We might go to work at it this
afternoon."

"Certainly, Mr Milne, certainly," replied the overseer. And forthwith
the tool-chest was laid under requisition, and in a couple of hours the
necessary alterations were effected.

This move did not altogether meet with Eanswyth's approval, and she
expostulated accordingly.

"Why should you be the one turned out in the cold," she said. "There's
no earthly necessity for it. You will be horribly uncomfortable over
there, Eustace, and in winter the nights will be quite bitter. Then
again, the roof is a thatched one, and the first rain we get will start
it leaking like a sieve. Besides, there's plenty of room in the house."

"It isn't that, you dear, thoughtful, considerate guardian angel," he
answered. "It isn't quite that, though I put it that way for Bentley's
be