hing seemed to
impair, suggested strolling. John Ames was rather inclined to be silent
as they wandered on, the light of the southern moon flooding down
through the overshadowing firs, the balmy stillness of the night broken
by distant snatches of shrill laughter and the chatter of voices from
squalid coloured loafers on the main road. He was realising with a sort
of pang at the heart how all this time would soon be behind him, as in a
flash, only as an episode to look back to. The girl, noting his
silence, was wondering whether it was a prelude to what she had airily
termed "hoisting the signals," and, thus conjecturing, was surprised at
herself and her lack of the usual eagerness to avoid them.

"You are feeling much better than when you came down, are you not, Mr
Ames?" she said softly.

"Ever so much. I shall go back quite set up."

Her practised ear detected the slightest suspicion of melancholy in the
tone, while admiring the strength which controlled it.

"What a strange life you must have to lead up there!" she went on; for
he had told her a good deal about himself during the time of their
acquaintanceship.

"Oh yes. It gets monotonous at times. But then, I take it, everything
does."

"But it is such a useful life. And you have helped to open up the
country, too."

"Not I. That is left to other people."

"But you were with the first expedition, and so of course you helped. I
don't wonder you pioneers are proud of the part you took in extending
the Empire. Isn't that the correct newspaper phrase? At any rate, it
sounds something big."

John Ames smiled queerly. He was not especially proud of the extension
of the Empire; he had seen a few things incidental to that process which
had killed within him any such incipient inflation.

"Oh yes; there's a good deal of sound about most of the doings of `the
Empire,' but there--I must not get cynical on that head, because the
said extension is finding me in bread and cheese just now, and I must
endeavour to be `proud of' that."

"You must have great responsibilities holding the position you do. Tell
me, are you able to throw them off while you are away, or do you lie
awake sometimes at night wondering if things are going right?"

"Oh, I try not to bother my head about them. It's of no use taking a
holiday and thinking about `shop' all the while. Besides, the man who
is in my place is all there. He has been at it as long as I have; and
if the