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138 Trant waylaid her as she was passing along the verandah to her room in Ina's wake.

"Miss Valliant, I have two things to ask you."

"What are they, Mr. Trant?"

"Will you let me come and see you in Leichardt's Town?"

"Why, of course. I have told Mr. Blake that he may come."

"I am not Blake, and Blake isn't me. I shall come on my own account. The second request is, that you will give me the first waltz at the May ball."

"I am afraid that is promised."

"Has Blake been beforehand with me?" Trant's face darkened. "I won't stand that."

"I am under a standing engagement to dance the first waltz at all the May balls with Mr. Frank Hallett."

"Oh! Is that engagement going to hold after you are married, Miss Valliant?"

"I don't see why it shouldn't."

"Your husband might object, that's all. Never mind, I'm not jealous of Mr. Hallett. You'll give me the second?"

"Promised, too."

"Blake?"

She nodded.

"Then the third?"

"Yes, the third, if you like; always supposing that his Royal Highness or his Excellency the Governor don't want to dance it with me."

"I have no doubt that his Royal Highness will want to dance with you, and the Governor, too; unless he is a staid old married man. I'll risk it for that dance, and I shall book the engagement."

The cottage on Emu Point seemed smaller than ever after the comparative magnificence of Tunimba. Nobody had made the jam, and Mrs. Valliant was plaintively querulous. She was a delicate, rather would-be fine woman, who