t his heavy moustache rather
nervously.

'I thought they were wonderfully nice people for colonials. The girl
is a pretty little thing.'

'They are not colonials,' her brother returned quickly; 'at least, not
more than I am: for they haven't been in this country as long. Meta
only came out a couple of years ago. She was educated at home in
Brighton.'

'Was she?'

Gwen was looking at her brother with keen eyes now. There was silence
for a minute, then Walter said in a very quiet voice,--

'We have been engaged, she and I, for a twelvemonth, and the wedding is
fixed some time next month.'

Another dead silence, then Gwen said, with a little laugh, 'Well, I am
surprised. I did not think you were a marrying man. You never gave us
a hint of this in your letters home.'

'No; for I foresaw a long engagement, and thought it might be deemed
rash.'

'And how do you intend to support a wife?'

'I can manage it now. My ground is improving. The great difficulty in
this part of the country is want of water, and I have overcome that.
Of course, it will be hard work for some time yet, but Meta knows what
the life will be like, and an aunt in England has lately died, and left
her a legacy. She does not come to me portionless!'

Gwen gazed in front of her with compressed lips. She would not show
her consternation and discomfiture to her brother, though to herself
she was saying, 'I made a mistake in coming out to him!'

Aloud she said,--

'Well, I suppose I must congratulate you. And I will not stay out here
after your marriage; you will have one of your family at the ceremony,
which ought to comfort you.'

'You will like her as a sister, will you not?' asked Walter, with
anxiety in his eyes, as he turned and faced his sister.

'Oh yes. I thought she was a nice little thing. Not much character, I
suppose; but you men prefer that style of woman. She struck me as a
lady.'

'Rather!' And with a short laugh Walter put his beloved pipe in his
mouth, and with a sigh of relief at getting through his news, sank into
a lounge chair, prepared to give his full confidence to his sister, now
that the worst was over.

But Gwen disappointed him by rising carelessly from her seat.

'I am very tired. Your early hours here make the day interminable.
Good-night.'

She passed into the house humming the air of a song, but once in her
room her expression changed.

'He will marry and have a large family, and only just