Page:Hornung - Irralies Bushranger.djvu/77

 "You astonished me."

"How?"

"By calling me like that."

"Oh, so I haven't known you long enough to call you George, eh? Certainly we live and learn!"

"You know I didn't mean that, Irralie."

She did know, and she relented. "Then what's the matter with you? What have I done—or anybody else—that you should look as you have looked all the evening, and—and not behave like other people? Who's offended you? That's what I want to know!"

Nobody. He was not offended at all. That was all he would say. Yet he said it with such a tragic tremor, and was at one and the same time so dignified and manly and pig-headed, that Irralie could not leave ill alone, but must needs answer for him.

"I know who!" she whispered, and pointed across the yard to the front veranda. It showed a firmament of tiny red stars. The new owner had got at his