stolidly. For the moment the girl and the moonlight stupefied him. The scene in the room was still before his eyes and in his ears.
"Well, that's one for me! What station have you come from to-day?"
"Kerulijah."
"And you never heard of me there! Ah, well, I'm very seldom up here. I've only come for the shearing. Still, the whole place is mine, and I'm not exactly a cipher in the business either; I rather thought I was the talk of the back-blocks. At one time I know I was. I'm very vain, you see."
"You have something to be vain about," said the piano-tuner, looking at her frankly.
She made him a courtesy in the moonlit yard.
"Thank you kindly. But I'm not satisfied yet; I understand that you arrived in time for supper; didn't you hear of me at table?"
"I just heard your name."
"Who mentioned it?"
"The fellow with the beard."
"Prettily?"
"I think so. He was wondering where you were. He seems to know you very well?"
"He has known me all my life. He is a sort of connection. He was overseer here when my father died a year or two ago. He is the manager now."
"But you are the boss?"
"I am so! His name, by the way, is Gilroy—my mother was a Gilroy, too. See? That's why he calls me Naomi; I call him Monty when I am not wroth with him. I am disgusted with them all to-night! But you mustn't mind them; it's only their way. Did you speak to the overseer, Tom Chester?"
"Which was he?"
"The one on the sofa."
"No, he hardly spoke to me."
"Well, he's a very good sort; you would like him if you got to know him. The new chum with the eye-glasses is all right, too. I don't believe those two were to blame. As for Mr. Sanderson, I wouldn't think any more about him if I were you; he really isn't worth it."
"I forgive him," said the musician, simply; "but I shall never forgive myself for playing the fool and losing my temper!"
"Nonsense! It did them good, and they'll think all the more of you. Still, I must say I'm glad you didn't dash the kerosene lamp in Mr. Sanderson's face!"
"The what?" cried Engelhardt, in horror.
"The lamp; you were brandishing it over your head when I came in."
"The lamp! To think that I caught up the lamp! I can't have known what I was doing!"
He stood still and aghast in the sandy yard; they had wandered to the far side of it, where the kitchen and the laundry stood cheek-by-jowl with the wood-heap between them, and their back-walls to the six-wire fence dividing the yard from the plantation of young pines which bordered it upon three sides.
"You were in a passion," said Miss Pryse, smiling gravely. "There's nothing in this world that I admire more than a passion—it's so uncommon. So are you! There, I owed you a pretty speech, you know! Do you mind giving me your arm, Mr. Engelhardt?"
But Engelhardt was gazing absently at the girl, and the road between ear and mind was choked with a multitude of new sensations. Her sudden request made no impression upon him, until he saw her stamping her foot in the sand. Then, and awkwardly enough, he held out his arm to her, and her firm hand caught in it impatiently.
"How slow you are to assist a lady! Yet I feel sure that you come from the old country?"
"I do; but I have never had much to do with ladies."
The piano-tuner sighed.
"Well, it's all right; only I wanted you to take my arm for Monty Gilroy's benefit. He's just come out on to the veranda. Don't look round. This will rile him more than anything."
"But why?"
"Why? Oh, because he showed you the hoof; and when a person does that, he never likes to see another person being civil to the same person. See? Then if you don't, you'd better stand here and work it out while I run into the kitchen to speak to Mrs. Potter about your room."
"But I'm not going to stay!" the piano-tuner cried, excitedly.
"Now what are you giving us, Mr. Engelhardt? Of course you are going to stay. You're going to stay and tune my poor old piano. Why, your horse was run out hours ago!"
"But I can't face those men again——"
"What rubbish!"
"After the way I made a fool of myself this evening!"
"It was they who made fools of themselves. They'll annoy you no more, I promise you. In any case, they all go back to the shed to-morrow evening; it's seven miles away, and they only come in for Sunday. You needn't start on the piano before Monday, if you don't like."
"Oh, no, I'll do it to-morrow," Engelhardt said, moodily. He now felt bitterly certain that he should never make friends with the young men of Taroomba, and shamefully thankful to think that there would be a set occupation to keep him out of their way for the whole of the morrow.
"Very well, then; wait where you are for two twos."
Engelhardt waited. The kitchen-door had closed upon Miss Naomi Pryse; there was no sense in watching that any longer. So the piano-tuner's eyes climbed over the waterspout, scaled the steep corrugated roof, and from the wide wooden chimney leapt up to the moon. It was at the full. The white clear light hit the young man between his expressive eyes, and still he chose to face it. It gave to the delicate eager face an almost ethereal pallor; and as he gazed on without flinching, the raised head was proudly carried, and the little man looked tall. To one whom he did not hear when she lifted the kitchen-latch and opened the door, he seemed a different being; she watched him for some moments before she spoke.
"Well, Mr. Engelhardt?"
"Well," said he, coming down from the moon with an absent smile, and slowly.
"I have been watching you for quite a minute. I believe it would have been an hour if I hadn't spoken. I wish I hadn't! We're going to put you in that little building over there—we call it the 'barracks.' You'll be next door to Tom Chester, and he'll take care of you. There's no occasion to thank me; you can tell me what you've been thinking about instead."
"I wasn't thinking at all."
"Now, Mr. Engelhardt!" said Naomi, holding up her finger reprovingly. "If you weren't thinking, I should like to know what you were doing?"
"I was waiting for you."
"I know you were. It was very good of you. But you were smiling, too, and I want to know the joke."
"Was I really smiling?"
"Haven't I told you so? Have you signed the pledge against smiles? You look glum enough for anything now."
"Yes?"
