lized that it was
only another evidence of what he called the "Lashcairn conceit" and
that, if Marcella had thought it desirable to ask the Governor-General
to tea, she would have done so unhesitatingly. When he met Kraill he was
very nervous and shaky, unable to think coherently because of the fight
that was going on within him. When she came back from her work at the
Homestead, where the relics of the party had to be cleared away, the two
men had vanished. They walked round the rabbit-proof fences and came
back in time to welcome a "surprise party" from Klondyke drawn by the
magnetism of the "gentleman from England" who had won them the night
before. Marcella thought several times of Dr. Angus and wished that he
could have been there to see Kraill "getting off the rostrum" as he had
done in Edinburgh. But she got no chance to talk to him all that day;
there was too much miscellaneous chatter.

"He's great, isn't he?" said Louis at bedtime. Marcella was startled.
She had never heard him praise anyone but a few doctors at the hospital
before.

"I wish I could be like that--not frightened of people," he said. "I've
worn my nerves to shreds, now. You don't understand nerves. You don't
possess any."

He turned over in his hammock ready to go to sleep. She came across to
him and bent over him.

"Louis, what's going to happen to-morrow?" she asked presently.

"Gorse-grubbing. We've to get it all cleared now without delay."

"You know what I mean, dear. Can't you--won't you try not to go to
Klondyke at all? Louis, it would be so splendid if we could save all the
money for a few months and go home to England so that your mother can
see Andrew. Wouldn't it?"

He sighed.

"Shall I ask Mr. Twist to keep the money, and not give us any for six
months? That would be a good plan. We are always so happy except on pay
days, and you are so wretched after you've been to Klondyke."

He agreed absolutely, with such alacrity that she was a little doubtful
of him. Next morning when she went over to the Homestead at eight
o'clock she learned that he had come to Mr. Twist with a tale about
wanting the money for a visit to the store, and had gone off at six
o'clock. It was three days before he came back, dirty and haggard and
despairing almost to the verge of suicide.

During those three days Marcella deliberately left her work; she went to
the Homestead in the mornings, and fired some gorse in the afternoons;
dense clouds of smoke