meet can tell you the same. Why, he had
a young cousin here--such a nice boy--and he sent him straight to
the bad with his harsh treatment,--_sjamboked_ him and turned him
out of the house for some slight offence. Yes, no wonder you look
scandalized; but I assure you it's true. Guy Ranger was none too
steady, I know. But that was absolutely the finishing touch. He
was never the same again."

She paused. Sylvia was very white, but her eyes were quite
resolute, unfailingly steadfast.

"Please don't tell me any more!" she said. "Whatever Burke did
was--was from a good motive. I know that. I know him. And--I
don't want to have any unkind feelings towards him."

"You prefer to remain blind?" said Mrs. Merston with her bitter
smile,

"Yes--yes," Sylvia said.

"Then you are building your house on the sand," said Mrs. Merston,
and turned from her with a shrug. "And great will be the fall
thereof."

CHAPTER III

THE BARGAIN

THE visitors did not leave until the sun was well down in the west.
To Sylvia it had been an inexplicably tiring day, and when they
departed at length she breathed a wholly unconscious sigh of relief.

"Come for a ride!" said Burke.

She shook her head. "No, thank you. I think I will have a rest."

"All right. I'll smoke a pipe on the _stoep_," he said.

He had been riding round his land with Merston during the greater
part of the afternoon, and it did not surprise her that he seemed
to think that he also had earned a quiet evening. But curiously
his decision provoked in her an urgent desire to ride alone. A
pressing need for solitude was upon her. She yearned to get right
away by herself.

She went to her room, however, and lay down for a while, trying to
take the rest she needed; but when presently she heard the voice of
Hans Schafen, his Dutch foreman, talking on the verandah, she arose
with a feeling of thankfulness, donned her sun-hat, and slipped out
of the bungalow. It was hot for walking, but it was a relief to
get away from the house. She knew it was quite possible that Burke
would see her go, but she believed he would be too engrossed with
business for some time to follow her. It was quite possible he
would not wish to do so, but she had a feeling that this was not
probable. He generally sought her out in his leisure hours.

Almost instinctively she turned her steps in the direction of the
kopje which she had so often desired to climb. It rose steep