pirited animal through timber at a speed that an ordinary rider
rarely indulged in on an open road.

The Honourable Walter was at some little trouble to win the good graces
of his host; he admired his horses with unaffected enthusiasm,
particularly Wallaroo, the beautiful bay entire that had excited Mike's
admiration, reputedly the fastest animal in the colony, and Macdougal's
pride and joy. He even consented to be educated on the points of cattle,
and to absorb useful information in homeopathic doses about the various
breeds of sheep; but Mack never at any time seemed grateful to Ryder for
his kindly condescension, and the affliction under the influence of which
Mack indulged in strange and disconcerting gymnastics with his tongue
rendered conversation with him something of an ordeal, even to a man of
Ryder's insensitive character. Mack's tongue seemed to become too large
for his mouth at times, and then he obtruded it, rolled it first in one
cheek and then in the other, chewed it, and finished with an amazing
gulp, implying that the troublesome organ was at length effectually
disposed of.

'He's been like that as long as I've known him, and I met him first on
the Liverpool Plains in New South twenty years ago,' said Martin Cargill
of Longabeena to Ryder. 'He seems exactly the same man now as then.'

'Yet these little peculiarities did not make him impossible in the eyes
of the fair,' answered Ryder. 'He has a charming wife.'

'Oh yes but he had heaps of gold.'

'Enough to gild that dome on his back!'

'And a girl had not many opportunities of picking and choosing in the
Bush here ten years ago.'

'Besides, the sex is so compassionate, Mr. Cargill; the ladies love us
for our imperfections.'

'Have you been dearly loved, Mr. Ryder?' asked an impudent Sydneyside
girl of nineteen.

'No, no!' laughed Ryder; 'my opportunities have neglected me terribly!'

Conversation sometimes ran in this vein even at Boobyalla, and when it
did Ryder was responsible for much confusion of thought. Conversation in
the main dealt with riding-trips, dancing-parties, the stirring incidents
of the goldfields, and that prolific subject in all societies and at all
times--scandal. Mrs. Macdougal would have been thunderstruck to know that
she and her British lion provided the choicest morsels for discussion for
some days prior to the breaking up of the party.

The Honourable Walter Ryder had been a great social success; he had
introduce