onted you years ago."

"Oh! that is all forgotten, old son. I was to blame for going off in
such a silly huff. I behaved like a bear. We men don't understand women,
Ted, and make hideous fools of ourselves. And that brings me to what I
wanted to tell you--which is, that you are a blazing idiot."

"Tom, whatever you say, and whatever cheek you give me, I will take it
quietly, although I could knock you out in four rounds," and Westonley
thumped Gerrard affectionately on his back with his great hand. "Now,
I know I'm a thundering ass but I'll be as meek as a lamb to you, you
black-faced, under-sized little beggar."

Gerrard laughed. There was a difference of four inches in their
respective heights; Westonley being six feet two inches. He knew by the
inflection of the big man's voice that he had become a much happier man
within the last ten minutes, and the knowledge of it gave him a great
satisfaction.

"I may not be as big as you," he said, "but if I was the same shape,
I'd go to a bush carpenter, and get him to trim me down with an adze."
Then after this jest, he resumed seriously. "Well, Ted, it is just this.
Lizzie says that she likes Sydney but you do not, and that you will
never stay there for more than a week at a time. Now, that isn't doing
the square thing by her. You and I as well, never think that the many
years she spent in England gave her a taste for many of the refinements
of civilisation--pictures, high-class music, especially Churchy
music, and all kind of things like that, which are always dear to a
highly-educated and naturally clever woman, Now, when she married you,
and settled down to a station life, she gave up a good deal, and as the
years go on, she feels it more and more, and no woman in the world can
always be an angel, you know, although we tell 'em so when we ask 'em to
marry us. Do you follow me?"

"I'm listening for all I'm worth, my son. If we were in a room, you
could distinctly hear the wall paper adhering to the wall."

"Well, now, as I was saying, that isn't fair to Lizzie. What is the use
of her going to Sydney for a week? Just as she is beginning to enjoy
herself, and feel something of the life she had in England, you drag her
back to Marumbah to your beastly bullock punching."

"But I don't want her to come, Tom. I've always urged her to stay there
for three months--or six, if she liked."

"Bosh! What pleasure would she have in being there alone; for although
a woman may hav