"But I like you so much better without it," was Barbie's startling declaration.
"Oh, come, that's encouraging, but why?"
"When you were rich, you never took any notice of me,—till the day you picked me up on the maidan. You were always a sort of lofty glorified individual, who was a favourite at Government House, barred girls, and——"
"But, I say," he interrupted, "what a frightful accusation! I spotted you the very first night I dined at Fred's. You ask Nancy Brander; she told me you were engaged. That naturally put me off; and then afterwards, you know, you gave me the cold shoulder, didn't you?"
"Yes—I suppose I did," she admitted.
"And now," and he drew a long breath, "now I am asking you to give me yourself; it's a tall order, I know."
Barbie made no reply, but something more radiant than the afterglow flooded her soul, and filled her eyes with happy tears. From the first, she had felt irresistibly drawn to this young man, who stood before her bareheaded; and she asked no greater gift than that in him she might find a lover and a husband. Golden silence can be eloquent! Barbie's charming, expressive face spoke for her, and Mallender drew her unresisting towards him. Was anything in life comparable to the exquisite happiness of the moment, when her lips met his?
For an instant they stood hand in hand, and in expressive and rapturous silence. The whole thing was like a heavenly dream, from which however they were rudely aroused, by the sound of grumbling voices, scrambling feet, and scattering stones. In another moment Mr. MacKenzie and his young apprentice, Andrew Reekie (a merry-eyed Army failure, whose sunburnt face and violently red hair, had earned him the name of "the Blood Orange") were with them.
"So here you are!" gasped MacKenzie, as he took off his hat, and mopped his hot face, "by Jove, it's a stiff pull!—grand scene, though, grand!" as his eyes roved over the wonderful panorama, that fell from their feet; the teeming forests, the masses of palms, and thickets of bamboos. The sun was sinking into the west, and a rose and gold afterglow was reflected in the shining sea with indescribable effulgence.
"Yes," added MacKenzie when he had recovered his breath, "this view would take a good bit of beating. I wish the 'Window' was in Scotland, I'd run the show for tourists, and make a fortune! Hullo, where's Mallender gone to?"