Ailleen exclaimed; and as there was a suspicion of ruffled temper
at his proposal, she sought her usual cure by moving her horse forwards,
as she could not move about herself.

As the horse started, Dickson brought his round in front of it.

"Here, I say," he said, "it's no good playing the fool like that. We
don't want the others. You come by yourself."

For answer Ailleen turned her horse round from him, and he strove to
keep his in front of it, but failing, he leaned forward and caught hold
of the bridle.

"I'm not going to be----" he began.

"Leave go," Ailleen exclaimed sharply, looking him full in the face
with eyes that were dangerously angry.

"I don't want, and I won't have, the others," he retorted, retaining his
hold of the bridle.

The thin switch Ailleen carried fell across the back of his hand
sufficiently hard to induce him to let go.

"If I tell Nellie what you said?" she remarked.

"I was only in fun," he answered, the uneasy grin still on his face and
his eyes shifting. "I only wanted to see if you would let them wait."

The girl looked at him steadily.

"Willy Dickson, don't tell me lies," she said severely; and he evaded
her look. "If I had not promised to meet Nellie, I'd go straight back
again."

She set her horse at a canter without waiting for him to reply, and rode
steadily on, he after her, till Price's Waterhole was reached. It was a
small lagoon surrounded by sturdy ti-trees, and with its surface almost
covered by the blooms and leaves of pink water-lilies, over which a
myriad of blue dragon-flies and other winged insects were skimming.
Under the shade of the trees two horses were standing, and on the bank
of the lagoon, watching the dragon-flies as they flashed to and fro,
Nellie and her brother were sitting.

Fashions do not change with the month in bush communities, and Nellie's
hat was one of a pair with Ailleen's--they both came out of the same lot
from Marmot's store. Mushroom was the appropriate name given to them,
for they were wide of brim and small of crown, and the brims had the
extra recommendation of being bendable, up or down, forming an excellent
frame for the long, thin veil the dust and mosquitoes sometimes made a
necessity. They might not be especially beautiful of themselves, but
many a manly Australian heart has beaten more quickly at the sight of
one, with the fresh face of a bush maiden under it. As the two girls'
hats were alike, so were their costumes.