h in the little smile,
the softening of eyes in the starlight! Had we been alone I believe I
should have lost my head, and uttered I don't know what. But you can't
say anything of that sort with a lot of people jabbering and laughing,
and nothing between you and them but an open door and ditto window.

"You shall not be disappointed in that very unimportant particular at
any rate," I answered. "And you are good enough to say you will look
forward to it. Why I shall look forward to it every day until it
comes."

This was pretty plain-speaking and no mistake, but I had been surprised
out of myself. What she might have answered I can't even conjecture,
for at that moment through a lull in the racket within, was raised a
voice.

"Glanton? Yes. He's a good old buffer, Glanton. Why, what's become of
him?"

Aida Sewin's eyes met mine and I could see that she was bubbling over
with the humour of the situation. We broke into a hearty laugh, yet not
loud enough to reach those within.

"There. Now I hope you're duly flattered," she said. "A fresh
unconsidered outburst like that must be genuine. We don't often hear so
much good of ourselves even without being listeners."

"But consider the qualifying adjective. That, you know, is rather
rough."

"Not necessarily. Only a term of good fellowship, I expect. No. You
ought to feel brotherly towards him after that."

Somehow the whimsicality of it did avail to restore my good humour, or
the words and tone of her utterances that went before may have had
something to do with it. Had she been reading my thoughts as I sat
silent among the rest? Well, what if she had?

The storm had passed us by and a haze of continuous lightning in the
loom of a receding cloud together with an occasional mutter away over
the further ridge of the Tugela valley was all that remained of it. She
had moved towards the end of the stoep as though to obtain a nearer view
of this.

"I have something on my mind, Miss Sewin," I began, "and it is this.
You are good enough to say I have been of use to you all, needless to
say how delighted I am to have been able to be. Well now, I shall be
right out of the way for a time, and I am trying to puzzle out a plan of
letting me know in case you might urgently want me."

I don't know what on earth moved me to say this. Why should they want
me--urgently or otherwise? To my surprise she answered:

"It would be a great relief to my mind if you