his arms
folded, his hat drawn over his eyes. A Kaffer boy sat on the front seat
driving, and at his feet sat Doss, who, now and again, lifted his nose
and eyes above the level of the splashboard, to look at the surrounding
country; and then, with an exceedingly knowing wink of his left eye,
turned to his companions, thereby intimating that he clearly perceived
his whereabouts. No one noticed the cart coming. Waldo, who was at work
at his carpenter's table in the wagon-house, saw nothing, till chancing
to look down he perceived Doss standing before him, the legs trembling,
the little nose wrinkled, and a series of short suffocating barks giving
utterance to his joy at reunion.

Em, whose eyes had ached with looking out across the plain, was now at
work in a back room, and knew nothing till, looking up, she saw Gregory,
with his straw hat and blue eyes, standing in the doorway. He greeted
her quietly, hung his hat up in its old place behind the door, and for
any change in his manner or appearance he might have been gone only the
day before to fetch letters from the town. Only his beard was gone, and
his face was grown thinner. He took off his leather gaiters, said the
afternoon was hot and the roads dusty, and asked for some tea. They
talked of wool, and the cattle, and the sheep, and Em gave him the pile
of letters that had come for him during the months of absence, but of
the thing that lay at their hearts neither said anything. Then he went
out to look at the kraals, and at supper Em gave him hot cakes and
coffee. They talked about the servants, and then ate their meal in
quiet. She asked no questions. When it was ended Gregory went into the
front room, and lay in the dark on the sofa.

"Do you not want a light?" Em asked, venturing to look in.

"No," he answered; then presently called to her, "Come and sit here; I
want to talk to you."

She came and sat on a footstool near him.

"Do you wish to hear anything?" he asked.

She whispered:

"Yes, if it does not hurt you."

"What difference does it make to me?" he said. "If I talk or am silent,
is there any change?"

Yet he lay quiet for a long time. The light through the open door showed
him to her, where he lay, with his arm thrown across his eyes. At last
he spoke. Perhaps it was a relief to him to speak.

To Bloemfontein in the Free State, to which through an agent he had
traced them, Gregory had gone. At the hotel where Lyndall and her
stranger had staye