shop-window,
or the sea, begging his pardon for putting him last. But oh! what a
splendid thing to be rich; no, not that altogether, but to be able to go
wherever you liked, and have enough not to be troubled about money.'

'To be free, and have a mind at ease; it doesn't seem so much,' said
Starlight, talking almost to himself; 'and yet how we fools and madmen
shut ourselves out of it for ever, for ever, sometimes by a single act
of folly, hardly crime. That comes after.'

'The sun is going down behind the great rock tower,' Aileen says, as
if she hadn't heard him. Perhaps she didn't. When people have a lot on
their minds they're half their time thinking their own thoughts. 'How
all the lovely colours are fading away. Life seems so much like that--a
little brightness, then gray twilight, night and darkness so soon
after.'

'Now and then there's a star; you must admit that, Miss Marston,' says
he, cheerful and pleasant again; he was never down for long at a time.
'And there's that much-abused luminary, the moon; you'll see her before
we get home. We're her sworn votaries and worshippers, you know.'

We had to ride a bit to get home with any kind of light, for we didn't
want father to be growling or kicking up a row with Warrigal that we
left to look after him. But a few miles didn't matter much on such a
road, and with horses in such buckle as ours.

The stars came out after a while, and the sky was that clear, without a
cloud in it, that it was a better light to ride by than the moon throws.
Jim and I sometimes rode on one side and sometimes the other; but there
was old Rainbow always in the lead, playing with his bit and arching his
neck, and going with Aileen's light weight on him as if he could go on
all night at the same pace and think nothing of it; and I believe he
could.

When we got home dad was grumpy, and wondered what we wanted riding
the horses about when there was nothing to do and nothing to see. But
Warrigal had made him a pot of tea, and he was able to smoke now; so he
wasn't so bad after all. We made ourselves pretty comfortable--Aileen
said she'd got a good appetite, for a wonder--and we sat chatting round
the fire and talking away quite like old days till the moon was pretty
high.

Father didn't get well all at once. He went back twice because he would
try to do too much, and wouldn't be said by Starlight or Aileen either
when he took a thing into his head; then he'd have to be nursed and
lo