"Good-bye, Jim."
"Good-bye, Maud."
The old horse moved away when she gathered up her reins.
CHAPTER XV The Parting of the Way
Power kept his promise. The afternoon sun was still high in the sky when he let loose his horse in the stable yard at Surprise and walked across the stones to the house. He approached in view of the shadiest verandah where the household had come together after lunch. In the amplest chair lay Selwyn lost to all the ill humours of the heat; but Mrs. Selwyn interrupted her reading to give him a searching glance, and Neville shot up shaggy eyebrows and cried "Hello!" Maud came down the steps. She wore a big hat as protection from the sun; but she looked up to speak and showed Power the lines of care that twenty-four hours had drawn upon her face.
"Come this way, Jim. It's shady up the creek, and there are too many inside."
They passed together a little way up the bed of the creek, clambering once and again over sharp faces of rock where fair pools of water rest after the rains. They reached a spot where a sapling throws a broken shade upon a shelf of stone. They sat down. The prospect is gentle here as prospects are judged at Surprise. Below, stands the house peering round the bank of the rise—above, the creek climbs up into the hills.
"Well, Jim?"