to
the walls."

"That will cost money."

"One must have the bare necessaries of life. I presume I shall be able
to afford that much. Pine boards will do. I can Aspinall them."
"Aspinall is very nice, but sometimes it gets on the edges of your
books and spoils them."

"No, it doesn't. I have an Aspinalled book-case in my room now, and not
a mark ever came off it."

"Did you paint it?"

"I did."

"Are you going to leave it there?"

"I must. It is a fixture."

"That's all right. I am glad you are going to leave something."
"Something? I leave all."

"Except a library of books, and a collection of forty odd pictures,
that you will have to hang over the books--"

"You would not have us part with family portraits?"

"And a grand piano, extra sized, calculated to fill a suburban villa
drawing-room all by itself--"

"Pianos make nothing second-hand, and the girls must practise. Better
keep a good instrument than sell it for fifty pounds and spend the
money on a bad one."

"Certainly, if you can stow it. But with seven easy-chairs, and the
biggest Chesterfield sofa extant, and a large writing-table--"

"I can have that in my room."

"Along with a six-foot dressing-table, and a nine-foot wardrobe, and I
don't know how many chests of drawers--"

"The wardrobe will stand in a passage somewhere. We must have places to
put our clothes."

"A house with passages of that capacity--"

"Well, never you mind. If I can't find room for my things, I can sell
them in Melbourne as well as here."

"Having squandered a small fortune on the carriage down. Better leave
them with me, Debbie, and let me send you what you want afterwards."

"Thank you. You would not have them to send afterwards."

"Oh, I think I would."

"No. I shall settle everything before I leave, and the sale will be
held immediately. The furniture first, and then the place." Her mouth
closed upon the words like a steel snap.

"Just as you please about that," he said quietly. "Any time will suit
me."

"By public auction," she added, with a sharp glance at him--"to the
highest bidder."

"Yes," was his laconic comment. "Me."

"Not necessarily," said she, roused by the small word that held such
large meanings. "There are a few other rich persons in the western
district, to whom Redford may appear desirable."

"There are," he agreed easily. "I know several. But I shall outbid
them."

She was strongly agitated. "Oh, I hope they won't let you!"