“Always?” he insisted.

Something in his eyes gave her pause.  She wanted to turn her own aside, but could not.  “To—­to the best of my ability,” she stammered.

He looked ironical for an instant, and then abruptly he laughed and released her work.  “Bless your funny little heart!” he said.  “Peg away, if you want to!  It looks rather as if you’re starting at the wrong end, but, being a woman, no doubt you will get there eventually.”

That pierced her.  It was Guy—­Guy in the flesh—­tenderly taunting her with some feminine weakness.  So swift and so sharp was the pain that she could not hide it.  She bent her face over her work with a quick intake of the breath.

“Why—­Sylvia!” he said, bending over her.

She drew away from him.  “Don’t—­please!  I—­I am foolish.  Don’t—­take any notice!”

He stood up again, but his hand found her shoulder and rubbed it comfortingly.  “What is it, partner?  Tell a fellow!” he urged, his tone an odd mixture of familiarity and constraint.

She fought with herself, and at last told him.  “You—­you—­you were so like—­Guy—­just then.”

“Oh, damn Guy!” he said lightly.  “I am much more like myself at all times.  Cheer up, partner!  Don’t cry for the moon!”

She commanded herself and looked up at him with a quivering smile.  “It is rather idiotic, isn’t it?  And ungrateful too.  You are very good not to lose patience.”

“Oh, I am very patient,” said Burke with a certain grimness.  “But look here!  Must you mend that shirt?  I’ve got another somewhere.”

Her smile turned to a laugh.  She sprang up with a lithe, impulsive movement, “Come along then!  Let’s go!  I don’t know why you want to be bothered with me, I’m sure.  But I’ll come.”

She took him by the arm and went with him from the room.

They rode out across Burke’s land.  The day had been one of burning heat.  Sylvia turned instinctively towards the kopje that always attracted her.  It had an air of aloofness that drew her fancy.  “I must climb that very early some morning,” she said, “in time for the sunrise.”

“It will mean literal climbing,” said Burke.  “It’s too steep for a horse.”

“Oh, I don’t mind that,” she said.  “I have a steady head.  But I want to get round it tonight.  I’ve never been round it yet.  What is there on the other side?”

“Veldt,” he said.

She made a face.  And then veldt—­and then veldt.  Plenty of nice, sandy karoo where all the sand-storms come from!  But there are always the hills beyond.  I am going to explore them some day.”

“May I come too?” he said.

She smiled at him.  “Of course, partner.  We will have a castle right at the top of the world, shall we?  There will be mountain gorges and great torrents, and ferns and rhododendrons everywhere.  And a little further still, a great lake like an inland sea with sandy shores and very calm water with the blue sky or the stars always in it.”