wash out, but you're only wishing to be kind to me
because you understand all that better than I do in the old country."

The girl glanced aside and dropped her needle, while when she spoke her
voice was a trifle strained. "Do you know that you bushmen have made
me ashamed once or twice?" she said. "I am afraid there is a great
disappointment waiting for you when you see us as we are."

Alton rose as her father and Seaforth came in, with a curious little
inclination of his head which came well from him. "That simply
couldn't be," he said. "Well, it's a pity I couldn't tell you all you
have done for me already--and that's one reason why I'm so sorry the
other thing will not wash out. Now Charley and I have a good deal to
do, and you'll excuse me."

He went out with his comrade, and Deringham smiled at his daughter.
"He is learning rapidly. Still, I fancy the man will feel it when--and
I am of course speaking impersonally--he finds you out," he said.

Alice Deringham laughed, though she was not conscious of much amusement
just then, and pointed to the bookcase close by her.

"It is really not his fault, if that is where he gets his fancies
from," she said.

"No," said Deringham, nodding. "We grow out of them at sixteen in the
old country. Of course, Tennyson, Kingsley, Scott. Now I wonder if he
would find Elaine a more common type than Vivienne if he went home to
Carnaby. Still, if you look a little more closely, there is literature
which might throw a slightly different light upon the man's character.
I notice a bulky volume on soft-wooded trees, somebody on trigonometry,
geology in relation to mining, and what I recognize as a standard work
on finance and banking."

Alice Deringham smiled. "Do you know I fancy that Alton of Somasco
would with a little training make his mark at home," she said. "Has he
mentioned any intention of returning with you?"

Deringham's face grew a trifle sombre. "He has not. We will talk of
something else," he said.

Alton and Seaforth sat up late that night, but what their conversation
was did not appear until they walked into a room at the rear of
Horton's store just as supper was being cleared away on the Saturday
evening. The nights were already growing cold, and a pile of pinewood
crackled in the stove, while the light of two big lamps fell upon the
bronzed faces of grave jean-clad men, all turned expectantly towards
Alton. He sat down at the head of the table, w