Page:Coo-ee - tales of Australian life by Australian ladies.djvu/77

Rh 'I should be only too happy to get it,' I replied; 'but I can hardly leave Creek so abruptly, and you say Gardiner goes at once.'

'I thought you told me just now that it was over a month since your agreement terminated?'

'Yes; I suppose had he wanted me he would have spoken?'

'Not a doubt of it. I don't see any need for hesitation on that score.'

'Perhaps not; though I should not like to offend him by accepting another billet before I had fairly left him, or even spoken of leaving.'

'Then don't say anything about it; the agreement is finished, and there's an end of it.'

The upshot of the matter was, I did take the billet, subject to the condition that I should not inconvenience Mr. Creek by leaving him hurriedly.

Mrs. Drummond wasn't present when this conversation took place. She had gone down to the station to see a sick woman, and her husband and I were waiting for her, sitting on a fallen log a little way off.

Nothing was said about it when she rejoined us; and it was not till just before I left, and she and I were alone together, that I mentioned that I was to be one of the Quondongs.

'Did you or Robert propose it?' she said, with a sudden harsh inflection in her voice.

'Mr. Drummond, certainly; even my impudence would not have been equal to that.'

She did not say anything more; but her remark,