Harry Heathcote of Gangoil Part 10

"I'm sure you won't."

"Nor yet say worse of you behind your back than I will to your face."

"I don't want you to think that you have occasion to speak ill of me, either one way or the other. What I mean is this--I don't quite think that the evidence against Nokes is strong enough to justify me in sending him away; but I'll keep an eye on him as well as I can. It seems that he left our place early this morning; but the men are not supposed to be there on Sundays, and of course he does as he pleases with himself."

The conversation then dropped, and in a little time Harry made some excuse for leaving them, and returned to the house alone, promising, however, that he would not start for his night's ride till after the party had come back to the station. "There is no hurry at all," he said; "I shan't stir for two hours yet, but Mickey will be waiting there for stores for himself and the German."

"That means a n.o.bbler for Mickey," said Kate. "Either of those men would think it a treat to ride ten miles in and ten miles back, with a horse-load of sugar and tea and flour, for the sake of a gla.s.s of brandy-and-water."

"And so would you," said Harry, "if you lived in a hut by yourself for a fortnight, with nothing to drink but tea without milk."

The old lady and Mrs. Heathcote were soon seated on the gra.s.s, while Medlicot and Kate Daly roamed on together. Kate was a pretty, modest girl, timid withal and shy, unused to society, and therefore awkward, but with the natural instincts and apt.i.tudes of her s.e.x. What the gla.s.s of brandy-and-water was to Mickey O'Dowd after a fortnight's solitude in a bush hut, with tea, dampers, and lumps of mutton, a young man in the guise of a gentleman was to poor Kate Daly. A brother-in-law, let him be ever so good, is after all no better than tea without milk. No doubt Mickey O'Dowd often thought about a n.o.bbler in his thirsty solitude, and so did Kate speculate on what might possibly be the attractions of a lover. Medlicot probably indulged in no such speculations; but the n.o.bbler, when brought close to his lips, was grateful to him as to others. That Kate Daly was very pretty no man could doubt.

"Isn't it sad that he should have to ride about all night like that?"

said Kate, to whom, as was proper, Harry Heathcote at the present moment was of more importance than any other human being.

"I suppose he likes it."

"Oh no, Mr. Medlicot; how can he like it? It is not the hard work he minds, but the constant dread of coming evil."

"The excitement keeps him alive."

"There's plenty on a station to keep a man alive in that way at all times."

"And plenty to keep ladies alive too?"

"Oh, ladies! I don't know that ladies have any business in the bush.

Harry's trouble is all about my sister and the children and me. He wouldn't care a straw for himself."

"Do you think he'd be better without a wife?"

Kate hesitated for a moment. "Well, no. I suppose it would be very rough without Mary; and he'd be so lonely when he came in."

"And n.o.body to make his tea."

"Or to look after his things," said Kate, earnestly. "I know it was very rough before we came here. He says that himself. There were no regular meals, but just food in a cupboard when he chose to get it."

"That is not comfortable, certainly."

"Horrid, I should think. I suppose it is better for him to be married. You've got your mother, Mr. Medlicot."

"Yes: I've got my mother."

"That makes a difference, does it not?"

"A very great difference. She'll save me from having to go to a cupboard for my bread and meat."

"I suppose having a woman about is better for a man. They haven't got any thing else to do, and therefore they can look to things."

"Do you help to look to things?"

"I suppose I do something. I often feel ashamed to think how very little it is. As for that, I'm not wanted at all."

"So that you're free to go elsewhere?"

"I didn't mean that, Mr. Medlicot; only I know I'm not of much use."

"But if you had a house of your own?"

"Gangoil is my home just as much as it is Mary's; and I sometimes feel that Harry is just as good to me as he is to Mary."

"Your sister will never leave Gangoil."

"Not unless Harry gets another station."

"But you will have to be transplanted some day."

Kate merely chucked up her head and pouted her lips, as though to show that the proposition was one which did not deserve an answer.

"You'll marry a squatter, of course, Miss Daly?"

"I don't suppose I shall ever marry any body, Mr. Medlicot."

"You wouldn't marry any one but a squatter? I can quite understand that. The squatters here are what the lords and the country gentlemen are at home."

"I can't even picture to myself what sort of life people live at home." Both Medlicot and Kate Daly meant England when they spoke of home.

"There isn't so much difference as people think. Cla.s.ses hang together just in the same way; only I think there's a little more exclusiveness here than there was there."

In answer to this, Kate a.s.serted with innocent eagerness that she was not at all exclusive, and that if ever she married any one she'd marry the man she liked.

"I wish you'd like me," said Medlicot.

"That's nonsense," said Kate, in a low, timid whisper, hurrying away to rejoin the other ladies. She could speculate on the delights of the beverage as would Mickey O'Dowd in his hut; but when it was first brought to her lips she could only fly away from it. In this respect Mickey O'Dowd was the more sensible of the two. No other word was spoken that night between them, but Kate lay awake till morning thinking of the one word that had been spoken. But the secret was kept sacredly within her own bosom.

Before the Medlicots started that night the old lady made a proposition that the Heathcotes and Miss Daly should eat the Christmas dinner at Medlicot's Mill. Mrs. Heathcote, thinking perhaps of her sister, thoroughly liking what she herself had seen of the Medlicots, looked anxiously into Harry's face. If he would consent to this, an intimacy would follow, and probably a real friends.h.i.+p be made.

"It's out of the question," he said. The very firmness, however, with which he spoke gave a certain cordiality even to his refusal. "I must be at home, so that the men may know where to find me till I go out for the night." Then, after a pause, he continued, "As we can't go to you, why should you not come to us?"

So it was at last decided, much to Harry's own astonishment, much to his wife's delight. Kate, therefore, when she lay awake, thinking of the one word that had been spoken, knew that there would be an opportunity for another word.

Medlicot drove his mother home safely, and, after he had taken her into the house, encountered Nokes on his return from Boolabong, as has been told at the close of the last chapter.

CHAPTER VIII.

"I DO WISH HE WOULD COME!"