“However, I guess we can let her hunt around for herself when she wants a husband.  Jacky’s a girl with a head.  A sight better head than I’ve got on my old shoulders.  When she chooses a husband, and comes and tells me of it, she shall have my blessing and anything else I have to give.  I’m not going to interfere with that girl’s matrimonial affairs, sir, not for any one.  That child, bless her heart, is like my own child to me.  If she wants the moon, and there’s nothing else to stop her having it but my consent, why, I guess that moon’s as good as fenced in with triple-barbed wire an’ registered in her name in the Government Land Office.”

“And in the meantime you are going to make that same child work for her daily bread like any ‘hired man,’ and keep company with any scoun—­”

“Hi, stop there, Lablache!  Stop there,” thundered “Poker” John, and Jacky heard a thud as of a fist falling upon the table.  “You’ve taken the unwarrantable liberty of poking your nose into my affairs, and, because of our old acquaintance, I have allowed it.  But now let me tell you this is no d——­d business of yours.  There’s no make with Jacky.  What she does, she does of her own accord.”

At that moment the girl in question walked abruptly in from the veranda.  She had heard enough.

“Ah, uncle,” she said, smiling tenderly up into the old man’s face, “talking of me, I guess.  You shouted my name just as I was coming along.  Say, I want the field-glasses.  Where are they?”

Then she turned on Lablache as if she had only just become aware of his presence.

“What, Mr. Lablache, you here?  And so early, too.  Guess this isn’t like you.  How is your store—­that temple of wealth and high interest—­to get on without you?  How are the ‘improvident’—­’harum-scarums’ to live if you are not present to minister to their wants—­upon the best of security?” Without waiting for a reply the girl picked up the glasses she was in search of and darted out, leaving Lablache glaring his bilious-eyed rage after her.

“Poker” John stood for a moment a picture of blank surprise; then he burst into a loud guffaw at the discomfited money-lender.  Jacky heard the laugh and smiled.  Then she passed out of earshot and concentrated her attention upon the distant speck of animal life.

The girl stood for some moments surveying the creature as it moved leisurely along, its nose well down amongst the roots of the tawny grass, seeking out the tender green shoots of the new-born pasture.  Then she closed her glasses and her thoughts wandered to other matters.