"Then I thought of driving over to the shed in the morning; and you shall come with me if you're good."
For an instant he looked radiant. Then his face clouded over as he thought again of her goodness and his own ingratitude.
"Miss Pryse," he began—and stuck—but his tone spoke volumes of remorse and self-abasement.
Evidently she was getting to know that tone, for she caught him up with a look of distinct displeasure.
"Only if you're good, mind!" she told him, sharply. "Not on any account unless!"
And Engelhardt said no more.
CHAPTER VII THE RINGER OF THE SHED
A sweet breeze and a flawless sky rendered it an exquisite morning when Naomi and her piano-tuner took their seats behind the kind of pair which the girl loved best to handle. They were youngsters both, the one a filly as fresh as paint, the other a chestnut colt, better broken, perhaps, but sufficiently ready to be led astray. The very start was lively. Engelhardt found himself holding on with his only hand as if his life depended on it, instead of on the firm gloved fingers and the taut white-sleeved arm at his side. He looked from the pair of young ones to that arm and those fingers, and back again at the pair. They were pulling alarmingly, especially the filly. Engelhardt took an anxious look at the driver's face. He was prepared to find it resolute but pale. He found it transfigured with the purest exultation. After all, this was the daughter of the man who had returned the bushranger's fire with laughter as loud as his shots; she was her father's child; and from this moment onward the piano-tuner felt it a new honor to be sitting at her side.
"How do you like it?" she found time to ask him when the worst seemed over.