'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!'