eyes which he never quite remembered ever having seen there before.
Then she said slowly, and with the air of one repeating a lesson--

"We have been through a good deal together during the last four days,
including one of the narrowest shaves for our lives we can ever possibly
again experience, and Heaven knows how long we are destined to roam the
wilds together; but why not keep the conventional until our return to
conventionality? Have I got a good memory, John?"

"Excellent," he answered. "I must try to imitate it."

His tone was even; but Nidia was not deceived. She was as well aware as
he of the thrill that went through his heart on hearing his own words so
exactly repeated, and all that they involved, and being so, she admired
his self-restraint, and appreciated it in proportion to its rarity. If
he had begun "to hang out the signals" at one time, he was careful to
avoid doing so now. Yet--she knew.

"I'm afraid I'm late," he went on. "I hope you did not begin to get
frightened. The fact is, I had a very long hard scramble after those
wretched birds."

"Yes. Oblige me by putting down that bundle of sticks, and going and
sitting over there. _I_ am going to build this fire, not you. Don't
you hear? Do as you're told," she went on, with a little stamp of her
foot, as he made no movement towards obeying. "You do the outdoor work,
I the in. That's fair division of labour."

"I won't hear of any `division of labour,' falling to you," he objected.

"Now, how often have we fought over this already? The only thing we
ever do fight about, isn't it? Go and sit over there, you poor tired
thing, and--and talk to me."

The while she took the sticks from his hands, looking up into his face,
with a merry, defiant expression of command mingled with softness upon
hers, that again John Ames came near losing his head. However, he
obeyed. It was sheer delight to him to sit there watching her, as she
broke up the sticks and deftly kindled a blaze in the fireplace,
securely sheltered by rocks from outside gaze, chatting away the while.
The fire was wanted rather for light and cheerfulness than for cooking
purposes, for it was late, and there was sufficient remaining from the
last cooking to make a supper of. While they were discussing this he
told her about his afternoon's doings, and the long and hard scramble he
had been obliged to undertake over two high granite kopjes before
obtaining his birds. There w