Page:Outlawandlawmak00praegoog.djvu/293

Rh lines of English comfort and the due subservience of Australian roughness to aristocratic sensibilities, but with all the dramatic fitness which local colour could impart; a house-party which should be duly chronicled in Lady Waveryng's book of travels, and which should pave the way for Mrs. Jem's reception into aristocratic circles in England when that long-talked-of trip Home should take place; and Mrs. Jem intended that it should take place before the Waveryng impressions had time to fade.

Mrs. Jem had for some time been silently making preparations. She was quite as good a caterer of amusement as Lord Horace, and made less fuss about it. The best rooms had been garnished in readiness for the Waveryngs, the bachelors' quarters had been made ready. By a diplomatic arrangement with the dentist, old Mrs. Hallett had been persuaded into taking her annual trip to Sydney a little earlier than usual, and her cottage was at the disposal of Mrs. James's guests.

She had invited a select party to meet the Waveryngs, including the Garfits and Minnie Pryde, and such of the neighbours as were thought either sufficiently refined for such exalted company, or sufficiently amusing to afford "copy" for Lady Waveryng. Dominic Trant had been asked, and had readily accepted the invitation; and Blake had been asked also, but had left it uncertain whether he could come. It was possible, he wrote, that his official duties might prevent him from being at the picnic to which he had so looked forward. He begged his kind regards to Miss Valliant, and his assurances to Lady Waveryng that zeal on behalf of the recovery of her jewels had something to do with his uncertainty.

"Ah, Blake knows that he will have a bad time when the House meets in October," said Jem Hallett. "No doubt, Sir James, you and your colleagues mean to make capital out of this Moonlight business?"

Sir James Garfit smiled sardonically, and remarked drily that they had their work cut out for that summer session. He meant, for his part, to make it last as short a time