'And going to Cannawijera with the children and the maids?'
'Precisely; unless your father wishes to have you at Godolphin House. What the devil made them give the place such a name as that? It seems like a bad joke.'
'Most things do in the Colonies, don't they?'
'Ah! I don't know that we need go into these details. You understand about the house? I have not given an absolute promise.'
'No; and you must not!' said Laurette, suddenly rising with quivering lips. 'If you suppose that I am going to bury myself in the heart of the Mallee Scrub——'
Tareling shrugged his shoulders with such an imperturbable air that Laurette at once checked herself.
'You have a good deal of temperament at times,' he said smoothly, after a little pause; 'but if you think over it you will see that here it is really worse than useless. I must have six or seven hundred pounds early in October, and two hundred pounds clear is more than I can afford to lose. Besides, you are only getting into debt every week.'
'And you? what will you do?'
'Oh, I shall manage, thanks,' answered Tareling, examining his watch-chain critically.
'Yes; you will manage to get into debt.'