awares. Peter's air, as he scribbled "Miss Urquhart"
on his card, was seraphic. Later, Alice snatched a chance to whisper to
Rose: "What a good-looking fellow! Who is he?" And Rose hastened to
explain that she knew him only very slightly.

They had their first waltz together, and he danced delightfully. This
was a fresh agreeable surprise to Rose--as if drapers did not take
dancing lessons and make use of them like other people; she was almost
indiscreet in her eulogies on his performance. But there was not room
for all, or half, or a quarter, to dance at once; and the crowded house
was hot, and the night outside soft, dry, delicious; and the Five
Creeks garden was simply made to be sat out in.

So presently Rose and Peter found themselves leaning over a gate at the
end of a long, sequestered path.

"That," said Rose, nodding towards open paddock, "is the boys' cricket
ground. They play matches in the holidays with the stations round. That
fence leads to Alice's fowl-yards--"

"Yes," said Peter. "But now, look here, Miss Rose--tell me straight and
true--am I to understand that my position in life makes me unfit to
associate with you?"

"What nonsense!" she protested, scarlet in the darkness. "What utter
stuff!"

"I am in retail trade," confessed Peter mournfully, "and lots of people
think that awful. Why, even the bookmakers and Jew usurers look down on
us! Not that I care a straw--"

"I should think not!"

"Except when it comes to your family--"

"What does it matter about my family--when I--"

"Ah, do you? Do you forgive me for being a shopkeeper?"

"As if I ever thought of it!" mocked Rose, which was disingenuous of
her. "I don't mind what anybody is if he's nice himself."

"Do you think I'm nice?"

"I am not going to pander to such egregious vanity."

"Do you think I am a gentleman? Do I pass for one--say, in a house like
this?"

"I am not going to answer any more of those horrid, indelicate,
unnecessary questions."

"Ah, I see--you don't."

"I DO," she flamed out, indignant with him. "You KNOW I do! Would I--if
I didn't--"

Her mouth was stopped. In the twinkling of an eye it happened, before
either of them knew it. He was carried away, and she was overwhelmed.
An earthquake could not have given them a greater shock.

"Forgive me," he muttered tremulously, when it was too late. "I know I
oughtn't to have--but I couldn't help it! You are not angry? It was
dashed impudence--but--oh, I say! w