"Never!" cried Ruth; and she went straight to her brother, who was smoking viciously in another room.
"Yes, by ghost!" drawled Herbert through his hooked nose. "I'm going to clear out. I'm full up of England, Ruth, and I guess England's full up of me. The best thing I can do is to go back, and turn boundary rider or whim driver. That's about all I'm fit for, and it's what I'm going to do. The Ballaarat sails on the 2d—I've been to the office and taken my berth already. My oath, I drove there straight from Liverpool Street this afternoon!"
Nor was there any moving him from his purpose, though Ruth tried for half an hour there and then. Twice that time Herbert spent afterward in Tiny's room; but it was not known whether Tiny also had attempted to dissuade him. When he left her the girl stood for five minutes with a foot on the fender and an elbow on the mantelpiece. Then she sought Ruth in haste.
Ruth had just gone upstairs. Erskine was surprised to see her back in his study almost immediately, and startled by her mode of entrance, which suggested sudden illness in the house.
"What in the world has happened?" he said, sitting upright in his chair.
"Happened?" cried Ruth bitterly. "It is the last straw! I give her up. I wash my hands of her. I wish she had never come over!"
"Tiny? Why, what has she been doing now?"
"It isn't what she has been doing—it is what she says she's going to do. You may be able to bring her to reason, but I never shall. I won't try—I wash my hands of her. I will say no more to her. But it is simply disgraceful! She is far worse than Herbert!"
"Has she unmade her mind," Holland asked eagerly.
"No, no, no! But worse, I call it. O Erskine, if you knew what she says——"