"Don't talk like that," answered Reg. "You are one in ten thousand. Where could one find another fellow such as you are, gifted with all that makes life worth the living; ready to throw up everything to help a chance stranger. It's I who am the brute, old fellow, to expect you to be tied to the vow you made."
"I don't like you to say that," said Hal. "I shall never regret having met you, and I thank my stars we were thrown together, and that I am able to help you."
A silent hand-clasp was Reg's only answer, and as Hal gripped his in return, both knew that the bond between them was stronger than ever.
In reply to Mrs. Eastwood's enquiries, Hal said he found looking-on most enjoyable, and agreed there was as nice a lot of good-looking girls present as one could find.
"Would you care to go to the Mayor's garden party this afternoon?" she asked.
"What, a garden party to-day, after dancing till three in the morning! In England they would just be thinking of having breakfast," said Morris, in surprise.
"Ah, we do things differently in the colonies."
"And a very good thing you do," was Reg's emphatic reply, as the obliging lady left them together.
"You seemed to find scrutinising those fair damsels an interesting occupation last night, Hal," he observed to his friend.
"So I did, my boy. You see, Tasmanian women have many points of difference compared to those in the other colonies. Tasmania is only a small island and the inhabitants, especially in the South, do not trouble themselves much about business or anything that conduces to worry. They pass their days in happy serenity so long as they have enough to live upon. Being a very healthy country, the birth-rate is enormous, considering the population. It is no uncommon thing to find families of fifteen to twenty, all alive and well, girls, of course, preponderating. Now, as Tasmania has no factories or important industries, the boys when they grow up emigrate to other colonies to make a livelihood; the girls remain behind, so the proportion of women to men is about ten to one."