changed for the better, but at that time his bumptiousness certainly
appeared to be on the increase. He had just left school then--he must be
nearly twenty now."

"Oh--quite old," said Norah. "What is he like?"

"Pretty!" said Mr. Linton, wrinkling his nose. "As pretty as his
name--Cecil--great Scott! I wonder if he'd let me call him Bill for
short! Bit of a whipper-snapper, he seemed; but I didn't take very much
notice of him--saw he was plainly bored by his uncle from the Bush, so I
didn't worry him. Well, now he's ours for a time your aunt doesn't
limit--more that that, if I can make a guess at these hieroglyphics,
I've got to send a telegram to say we'll have him on Saturday."

"And this is Wednesday--oh, Dad!" expostulated Norah.

"Can't be helped," her father said. "We've got to go through with it;
if the boy has been ill he must certainly have all the change we can
give him. But I'm doubtful. Eva says he's had a 'nervous breakdown,'
and I rather think it's a complaint I don't believe in for boys of
twenty."

The dinner gong sounded. Amid its echoes Norah might have been heard
murmuring something about "nervous grandmother."

"H'm," said her father, laughing; "I don't think he'll find much
sympathy with his more fragile symptoms in Billabong--we must try to
brace him up, Norah. But whatever will Jim say, I wonder!"

"He'll be too disgusted for words," Norah answered. "Poor old Jimmy! I
wonder how they'll get on. D'you suppose Cecil ever played football?"

"From Cecil's appearance I should say he devoted his time to
wool-work," said Mr. Linton. "However, it may not turn out as badly as
we think, and it's no use meeting trouble halfway, is it? Also, we've
to remember that he'll be our guest."

"But that's the trouble," said Norah, laughing. "It wouldn't be half so
bad if you could laugh at him. I'll have to be so hugely polite!"

"You'll probably shock him considerably in any case," said her father.
"Cecil's accustomed to very prim young ladies, and it's not at all
unlikely that he'll try to reform you!"

"I wish him luck!" said Norah. But there was a glint in her eyes which
boded ill for Cecil's reformatory efforts.

CHAPTER III

A BATH--AND AN INTRODUCTION

Quiet and shy, as the Bush girls are,
But ready-witted and plucky, too.
A. B. PATERSON.

The telegram assuring a welcome to Cecil Linton was duly dispatched,
and the fact of his impending arrival broken to Mrs. Brown, who