Part 15 (1/2)

”It's like the difference between Riverina and Victoria--there were acres to the sheep instead of sheep to the acre.”

Now there was no merit in this speech, but to those who understood it the comparison was apt, and Erskine knew enough of Australia to understand. Moreover, he had taught Tiny to listen for his laugh. So when he made neither sound nor sign the girl felt injured, but remembered that he had been extremely silent on the way home. And he was the first to go upstairs.

”It has bored him,” observed Christina.

”He don't like dancing,” said Herbert. ”He's no sportsman.”

”I am afraid he cares for nothing but lawn tennis when he's here,”

sighed Ruth, who looked a little troubled. ”I am afraid he dislikes going out in the country.”

They were silent for some minutes before Tiny exclaimed with conviction:

”No; it's the Dromards he dislikes.”

And presently they made a move from the room. But on the stairs they met Erskine coming down, having changed his dress suit for flannels; and Ruth followed him back to the study, eying the change with dismay.

”Surely you're not going to sit up at this hour?”

Ruth had raised her glance from his flannels to his face, which troubled her more.

”I'm afraid the fine weather's at an end,” Erskine answered crookedly; ”it's most awfully close, at any rate. And I want a pipe.”

He proceeded to fill one with his back to her.

”Erskine!”

”Well, dear?”

”I won't be 'dear' to you when you're cross with me. I want to know what I have done to vex you.”

He had struck a match, and he lit his pipe before answering. Then he said gently enough:

”If you think I'm cross with you I should run away to bed; I certainly don't mean to be.”

But he had not turned round.

”You succeed, at any rate! As you seem to wish it, I shall take your advice.”

Erskine heard her on the stairs with a twinge in his heart. He went to the door to call her down and be frank with her, but the shutting of her own door checked him. Setting this one ajar, he threw up the window, and stood frowning at the opaque pall that seemed to have been let down behind it like an outer blind. So he remained for some minutes before remembering the easy-chair. No one knew better than Erskine that he had just been unkind to his wife. He was not pleased with her, but he had refused to explain his displeasure when she invited him to do so. There was this difficulty in explaining it--that he knew it to be unreasonable, since the person who had vexed him most was not Ruth, but Christina. And not more reasonable was his disappointment in Christina, as he also knew. Yet the one thing in life not disappointing to him at the moment was his pipe; even the fine weather was most surely at an end.

He was tired of the rectory, which, wet or fair, had no longer either light or shadow of its own, for both were now absorbed in the deepening shadow of the hall. A week ago they had all dined there, now they had been dancing there, and meanwhile the girls had watched one of the matches, and were going to another. Erskine had been opposed to the dance, but the wife had prevailed; he was against their going to another match, but doubtless Ruth would have her way again, for she had shown a tenacity of purpose that surprised him in her, while he was crippled by a conscious lack of logic in his objections. He was not an arbitrary person, and it seemed that Ruth would stop for nothing less than a command where her heart was set; and her sister was with her. The whole trouble was, where their hearts were set.

He tried hard not to think the worst of Tiny, or rather the worst as it seemed to him. To make it easier, he called to mind various things she had said to him at various times concerning Lord Manister, of whom she had seldom failed to make fun. It amused and consoled Erskine to remember the fun; there must be hope for her still. Then he recalled common gossip about Lord Manister and his affairs; and there was hope on that side too. In less than a week the danger would be past, and those two would never see each other again. Consideration of the danger he had in mind, _qua_ danger, provoked a smile. Tiny herself would have enjoyed the humor of that, she was so quick to see and to enjoy. But she could appreciate more than a joke, or did she only pretend to like those books? And the soul that shone sometimes in her eyes, did it lie much deeper? She interested Erskine the more because he could not be sure.

She was a fascinating study to him, whatever she did or was trying to do. In any case, there was much good in her that he had fathomed, and more was suggested; and the finer the nature, the stronger the contrasts. Now as to contrasts--yet he had never seen that in Australia.

”A penny for your thoughts!”

Ten thousand pounds would not have bought them. It was his wife on the threshold, in a pale pink wrapper.