“You—­will be able to manage all right without me?”

“I shall try,” said Burke.

There was no perceptible cynicism in his tone, yet she winced a little, for in some fashion it hurt her.  Again she wondered, would it be a relief to him when she had gone?  Ah, that terrible barrier of silence!  If she could but have passed it then!  But she lacked the strength.

“Very well,” she said, and turned away.  “I will be ready.”

His voice arrested her at the door of her room.  “May I have the key of the strong-box?”

She turned back.  Her face was burning.  He had taken her unawares.

“I have it here,” she said, and gave it to him with a hand that shook uncontrollably.

“Thank you,” he said, and put it in his pocket.  “I should take it easy to-day if I were you.  You need a rest.”

And that was all.  He went out again into the blazing sunshine, and a little later she heard him talking to Schafen as they crossed the yard to the sheep-pens.

She saw him again at the midday meal, but he ate in haste and seemed preoccupied, departing again at the earliest moment possible.  Though he did not discuss the matter with her, she knew that the cruel drought would become a catastrophe if it lasted much longer.  She prepared for departure with a heavy heart.

He came in again to tea, but went to his room to change and only emerged to swallow a hasty cup before they started.  Then, indeed, just at the last, as she rose to dress for the journey, she attempted shyly to penetrate the armour in which he had clad himself.

“Are you sure you want me to go?” she said.

He turned towards her, and for a moment her heart stood still.  “Don’t you want to go?” he said.

She did not answer the question.  Somehow she could not.  Neither could she meet the direct gaze of the keen grey eyes upturned to hers.

“I feel almost as if I am deserting my post,” she told him, with a rather piteous smile.

“Oh, you needn’t feel that,” he said quietly.  “In any case you can come back whenever you want to.  You won’t be far away.”

Not far away!  Were they not poles asunder already—­their partnership dissolved as if it had never been,—­their good-fellowship—­their friendship—­crumbled to ashes?  Her heart was beating again quickly, unevenly.  She knew that the way was barred.

“Well, send for me if you want me at any time!” she said, and passed on to her room.

There was no need and small opportunity for talk during the drive, for Burke had his hands full with a pair of young horses who tried to bolt upon every conceivable occasion that offered, and he had to keep an iron control upon them throughout the journey.

So at length they came to the Merstons’ farm, and with a mingling of relief and dissatisfaction Sylvia realized that any further discussion was out of the question.