Eustace was silent a moment.
"You wouldn't mind leaving Trixy?" he said.
"Well, I should come back again," Nesta answered, feeling somehow annoyingly rebuked, "and I should have such loads and shoals of things to tell her and show her. All about the girls and my clothes, you know—"
"Oh," exclaimed Eustace in a tone of disgust, "that is all girls care about—talking, and showing off."
"It isn't," Nesta said quickly. "I should like the learning."
"Well, I shouldn't," admitted Eustace frankly; "I hate learning. It is only games that make school worth going to, and that isn't enough to make up for other things."
"What other things?" asked Nesta curiously.
"Oh, never mind," said Eustace impatiently; "I don't want to talk about it."
But Nesta did exceedingly; she wanted to talk of nothing else; till at last Eustace went off in desperation down the hill to watch the sugar crushing, saying something about, "It isn't as if people could come back to Queensland for the holidays," and "Everything would be different when they were all grown up."
"I don't know what is the matter with him," Nesta said to herself in perplexity. "I do believe he doesn't want to go at all. And I'm sure he is wrong about our staying there. No such luck!"