Again that quick note of passion was in his voice, and she tingled at the sound, for though she knew so well that he was wrong something that was quick and passionate within her made instinctive response.  She understood him.  Had she not always understood him?

She did not answer him.  She had given him her answer.  And he, realizing this turned aside to open the window.  Yet, for a moment he stood looking back at her, and all her life she was to remember the love and the longing of his eyes.  It was as if for that second a veil had been rent aside, and he had shown her his naked soul.

She wondered afterwards if he had really meant her to see.  For immediately, as he went out, he broke into a careless whistle, and then, an instant later, she heard him fling a greeting to someone out in the blinding sunshine.

An answer came back from much nearer than she had anticipated.  It was in the guttural tones of Hans Schafen the overseer, and with a jerk she remembered that the man always sat on the corner of the stoep to await Burke if he arrived before their return from the lands.  It was his custom to wear rubber soles to his boots, and no one ever heard him come or go.  For some reason this fact had always prejudiced her against Hans Schafen.

CHAPTER V

EVERYBODY’S FRIEND

When Burke came in to lunch half an hour later, he found Sylvia alone in the sitting-room, laying the cloth.

She glanced up somewhat nervously at his entrance.  “I’ve frightened Rosamond away,” she said.

“Little cuss!  Good thing too!” he said.  She proceeded rapidly with her occupation.

“I believe there’s a sand-storm coming,” she said, after a moment.

“Yes, confound it!"’ said Burke.

He went to the window and stood gazing out with drawn brows.

With an effort she broke the silence.  “What has Schafen to report? 
Is all well?”

He wheeled round abruptly and stood looking at her.  For a few seconds he said nothing whatever, then as with a startled sense of uncertainty she turned towards him he spoke.  “Schafen?  Yes, he reported—­several things.  The dam over by Ritter Spruit is dried up for one thing.  The animals will all have to driven down here.  Then there have been several bad veldt-fires over to the north.  It isn’t only sand that’s coming along.  It’s cinders too.  We’ve got to take steps to protect the fodder, or we’re done.  It’s just the way of this country.  A single night may bring ruin.”

He spoke with such unwonted bitterness that Sylvia was aroused out of her own depression.  She had never known him take so pessimistic a view before.  With an impulsiveness that was warm and very womanly, she left her task and went to him.

“Oh, Burke!” she said.  “But the worst doesn’t happen, does it?  Anyway not often!”