‘Then you won’t go, Chris?’ he said.

‘Yes,’ she answered, smiling into his face, ‘but not for ever.’

He drew her closer at the suggestion.

‘But why must you go?  Why should we part?’

’Please, please, dear, for a time.  I—­I want to be away for a little while, till I can bear it better—­you know what I mean.  Ah!’ she cried with sudden warmth, ’I thought was going to be strong and brave and bear it all alone; but I was only a girl, not a heroine—­my heart was crying out against it by day and night.’

’We’ll be very happy, Chris, in spite of those silly terrors.  ’Twas Mrs. Haddon sent me after you.’

‘I’m glad.  Oh, I’m glad!’

He gathered her to his heart, and kissed her again and again.

‘Chris,’ he said, ’you’re not quite fair to the people of Waddy; not a man or woman of them thinks a mean thought of you.’

’But I cannot bear to face them.  Let me go for a time, and I will come back.’

‘An’ be my wife?’

‘Yes, if you still want me.’

‘If!  You’ll write often.’

‘Every day if you wish it, dear.’

’Every day then.  Good-bye, my darling.  I’ll let you go, but not for long.  If you don’t come to me soon, I will come to you.’

The parting was long and loving, and then Harry recalled Jock Summers with a loud cooey.  After Chris had been helped into the buggy the old man glanced sharply at Harry.

‘Well, Maister Highwayman?’ he said.

‘She has promised to be my wife, sir,’ said Harry.

Summers looked into the girl’s brimming eyes, and his face softened.

‘I’m right glad,’ he said simply.

Harry rode by the trap as far as the town; then there was another parting, and he returned to Waddy like a man in a dream.  That evening he told his mother that Christina Shine had promised to be his wife.  Her answer surprised him.

’She is a brave, beautiful, genuine woman, and I would not have it different.’

’She said you were the best woman in the world, mother, and I believe she was right.’

’No, no, Henry; I will be content now to have you think me the second best,’ said his mother, smiling.

Chris, who was staying with a relation of Summers’ in Melbourne, wrote to say their parting should be for six months; but it did not last more than half that time, and meanwhile two or three matters of interest had happened in Waddy.  There had been several crushings from the Native Youth, and the yields justified the highest expectations; Frank Hardy and Mrs. Haddon had been married, and Joel Ham had departed from Waddy under interesting circumstances.  One evening when reading the Mercury in the bar at the Drovers’ Arms, Ham looked up from his paper and addressed several members of the School Committee who were present: 

‘Gentlemen,’ he said, ’I’ll have to get you to fill my position within a fortnight.’