'Don't you think he may have heard it in the township?'
'Your father's not given to gossiping among the township folk; you know that as well as I do, Sheilah!'
'Then you still think, in spite of what I have told you, that I did tell him? Answer me, straightforwardly, do you think so?'
'If you want it in plain English, without any beating about the bush, I do! There, now I have said it.'
For a moment her face flushed crimson, then her eyes filled with tears and she looked another way, thinking I should not see them. As soon as I had spoken I would have given all I possessed in the world to have recalled those fatal words; but my foolish pride would not let me say anything. Then Sheilah turned to me with a white face.
'I am sorry, Jim,' she said slowly, 'that you should think so badly of me as to believe me capable of telling you a lie. God forgive you for doubting one who would be, if you would only let her, your truest and best friend on earth.'
Then giving her horse a smart cut with her whip, she set off at a gallop, leaving me behind, feeling just the meanest and most contemptible cur on earth. For two pins I would have made after her, and licked the very dust off her boots in apology. But before I could do so my temper got the better of me again, and I turned off the track, made for the river, and, having forded it, rode home, about as miserable a man as could have been found in the length and breadth of Australia.
When I reached the house it was hard upon sundown, and old Betty was carrying in dinner. I turned my horse into the night paddock, hung my saddle and bridle on the peg in the verandah, and then went inside. The old woman met me in the passage, and one glance at my face told her what sort of state I was in. She drew me into the kitchen in her old affectionate way, and, having got me there, said,—
'Jim, boy, it's ye that must be very careful to-night. Your father's been at his old tricks all day, and he's just quarrelsome enough now to snap your head off if you say a word. Don't cross him, lad, whatever you do.'