It was yet early in the day. Miss Neuchamp, being put into possession of the best bedroom, hastily arranged for her use and benefit, was told to consider herself as the sole occupant of the cottage for the present. Mr. Neuchamp in the meanwhile having ordered lunch, went over to the barracks to see if Mr. Banks had returned. He had been sent upon an embassy of great importance and diplomatic delicacy: no less, indeed, than to prevail upon Mrs. Abraham Freeman to permit her eldest daughter, Tottie, a girl of seventeen, to come to Rainbar during the period of Miss Neuchamp’s stay, to attend upon that lady as housemaid, lady’s maid, and general attendant. He was empowered to make any reasonable promises to provide the girl with everything she might want, short of a husband, but to bring her up if it could possibly be done. For, of course, Ernest was duly sensible of the extreme awkwardness that would result from the presence of Miss Neuchamp—albeit a near relative—as the sole representative of womanhood at such an essentially bachelor settlement as Rainbar.
Tottie Freeman, who had commenced to bloom in the comparatively desert air of Rainbar, was a damsel not altogether devoid of youthful charms. True, the unfriendly sun, the scorching blasts, together with the culpable disuse of veil or bonnet, had combined to embrown what ought to have been her complexion, and, worse again, to implant such a crop of freckles upon her face, neck, and arms, that she looked as if a bran-bag had been shaken over her naturally fair skin.
Now that we have said the worst of her, it must be admitted that her figure was very good, well developed, upright, and elastic. She could run as fast as any of her brothers, carrying a tolerable weight, and (when no one was looking) vault on her ambling mare, which she could ride with or without a saddle over range or river, logs, scrub, or reed-beds, just as well as they could. She could intimidate a half-wild cow with a roping pole, and milk her afterwards; drive a team on a pinch, and work all day in the hot sun. With all this there was nothing unfeminine or unpleasing to the eye in the bush maiden. Quite the contrary, indeed. She was a handsome young woman as regards features, form, and carriage. Cool and self-possessed, she was by no means as reckless of speech as many better educated persons of her sex; and though she liked a little flirtation—‘which most every girl expex’—there was not a word to be said to her detriment ‘up or down the river,’ which comprehended the whole of her social system.
Such was the damsel whom Charley Banks had been despatched to capture by force, fraud, or persuasion for the use and benefit of Miss Augusta Neuchamp. A less suitable ambassador might have been selected. Charley Banks was a very good-looking young fellow, and had always risked a little badinage when brought into contact with Miss Tottie and her family. War had been formally declared between the houses of Neuchamp and Freeman, yet Ernest, as was his custom, had always been unaffectedly polite and kindly to the women of the tribe, young and old.
Therefore Mrs. Freeman had no strong ill-feeling towards him, and Miss Tottie was extremely sorry that they never saw Mr. Neuchamp riding up to the door now, with a pleasant good-morrow, sometimes chatting for a quarter of an hour, when the old people were out of the way. When Charley Banks first asked Mrs. Freeman to let her daughter go as a great favour to Mr. Neuchamp, and afterwards inflamed Tottie’s curiosity by descriptions of the great wealth and high fashion of Miss Neuchamp (who had a dray-load of dresses, straight from London and Paris, coming up next week), he found the fort commencing to show signs of capitulation. At first Mrs. Freeman ‘couldn’t spare Tottie if it was ever so.’ Then Tottie ‘couldn’t think of going among a parcel of young fellows, and only one lady in the place.’ Then Mrs. Freeman ‘might be able to manage for a week or two, though what Abe would say when he came home and found his girl gone to Rainbar, she couldn’t say.’ Then Tottie ‘wouldn’t mind trying for a week or two.’ She supposed ‘nobody would run away with her, and it must be awfully lonely for the lady all by herself.’ Besides, ‘she hadn’t seen a soul lately, and was moped to death; perhaps a little change would do her good.’ So the ‘treaty of Rainbar,’ between the high contracting personages, resolved itself into this, that Tottie was to have ten shillings a week for a month’s service, if Miss Neuchamp stayed so long, was to obey all her lawful commands, and to make herself ‘generally useful.’
‘So if you’ll be kind enough to run in the mare, Mr. Banks—she’s down on the flat there, and not very flash, you may be sure—I’ll get my habit on, and mother will send up my things with Billy in the evening. Here’s my bridle.’
Having stated the case thus briefly, Miss Freeman retired into a remarkably small bedroom which she shared with two younger sisters and a baby-brother, to make the requisite change of raiment, while Charley Banks ran into the stockyard and caught the varmint, ambling black mare, which he knew very well by sight. As he led her up to the hut Miss Tottie came out, carrying her saddle in one hand and holding up her alpaca habit with the other. She promptly placed it upon the black mare’s back, buckled the girths, and touching the stirrup with her foot, gave a spring which seated her firmly in the saddle, and the black mare dashed off at an amble which was considerably faster than a medium trot.
‘What a brute that mare of yours is to amble, Tottie,’ said Mr. Banks, slightly out of breath; ‘can’t you make her go a more Christian pace? Come, let’s have a spin.’
‘All right,’ said the girl, going off at speed, and sitting down to her work, ‘but it must be a very short one; my mare is as weak as a cat, and I suppose your horse isn’t much better.’
‘He’s as strong as nothing to eat three times a day can make him. So pull up as soon as you like. I say, Tottie, I’m awfully glad you’ve come up this time to help us with our lady. It was firstrate of your mother to let you come. Fancy Miss Neuchamp coming up in the coach by herself from Sydney!’