humouredly
at her mirth. "Sure, you're putting the joke on me," he said.
"They all do it. Where can I have strayed to? Is this a fairy
palace suddenly sprung up in the desert, and you the Queen of No
Man's Land come down from your mountain-top to give me shelter?"

She shook her head, still laughing, "No, I've never been to the
mountain-top. I'm only a farmer's wife."

"A farmer's wife!" He regarded her with quizzical curiosity for a
space. "Is it Burke's bride that you are?" he questioned. "And is
it Burke Ranger's farm that I've blundered into after all?"

"I am Burke Ranger's wife," she told him. "But I left off being a
bride a long time ago. We are all too busy out here to keep up
sentimental nonsense of that sort."

"And isn't it the cynic that ye are entirely?" rejoined the
visitor, broadly grinning. "Sure, it's time I introduced myself to
the lady of the house. I'm Donovan Kelly, late of His Majesty's
Imperial Yeomanry, and at present engaged in the peaceful avocation
of mining for diamonds under the rubbish-heaps of Brennerstadt."

Sylvia held out her hand. There could be no standing upon ceremony
with this man. She hailed him instinctively as a friend. There
are some men in the world whom no woman can regard in any other
light.

"I am very pleased to meet you," she said, with simplicity. "And I
know Burke will be glad too that you have managed to make your way
over here. You haven't chosen a very nice day for your visit.
What a ghastly ride you must have had! What about your horse?"

"Sure, I'd given myself up for lost entirely," laughed Kelly. "And
I said to St. Peter--that's my horse and the best animal bred out
of Ireland--'Pete,' I said to him, 'it's a hell of a country and no
place for ye at all. But if ye put your back into it, Pete, and
get us out of this infernal sandpit, I'll give ye such a draught of
ale as'll make ye dance on your head with delight.' He's got a
taste for the liquor, has Pete. I've put him in a cowshed I found
round the corner, and, faith, he fair laughed to be out of the
blast. He's a very human creature, Mrs. Ranger, with the soul of a
Christian, only a bit saintlier."

"I shall have to make his acquaintance," said Sylvia. "Now come in
and have some refreshment! I am sure you must need it."

"And that's a true word," said Kelly, following her into the
sitting-room. "My throat feels as if it were lined with
sand-paper."

She rapidly cleared a pl