he was good to me! He would not give up his
point, but he comforted me, and he was good. Once I had fairly started
I could not stop; all the pent-up misery of the last three days seemed
bound up in those tears. Heaven knows never had woman greater cause for
tears, though I only dimly felt it then, and never since have I cried
as I cried that day. Paul was frightened at first, I think, for he said
nothing but, "Poor little girl, poor little girl," and held me closer
than ever, but he would not give in, and at last, tired out, I could
only sob.

"Must you ride him, Paul, must you ride him?"

"I must, my darling. I really think it is the only thing to be done,
both for your sake and my own. It was a brutal thing to do, but it was
none of my doing, and when Boatman passes the winning post with Paul
Griffith up, why that settles everything, doesn't it, my sweet?"

Ah, yes, that would have settled everything; and as he stood there
beside me, so tall and straight and strong, I made up my mind my tears
were idle tears, and it would all come right in the end. And before I
went home we were both more than half convinced that there was likely to
be more good in my father's foolish wager than at first sight appeared,
and we two would turn it to our own advantage. Paul, indeed, was
jubilant, once he had got over his anger. He had come to tell me he
had got the offer of the managership of a station across the border in
Riverina. He would take it at the end of the year; there was a house
a lady could live in--and--well--would I go? After he had won--fairly
won--the Yanyilla Steeplechase, should he go to my father and ask for
the wife he had won?

And he was so confident, so happy, so certain of success, how could I
fail to be happy and confident too? I went home that night with a far
lighter heart than I had carried for many a long day. My mother saw the
traces of tears, and asked what I had been crying for, but I kept my own
counsel, for where was the good of enlightening her till I could tell
her everything was settled? There are many in the world who can rejoice
with them that rejoice, many, quite as many, thank God for it, who will
weep with them that weep; but to very few is it given, I think, to share
another's anxiety sympathetically. Fear and hope, we hardly know which
predominates, and the pain, which is of necessity the result, is best
borne in silence and alone. And at first with me hope reigned supreme;
but not for lo