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Rh off, and he had brought a book for Elsie, and while these offerings were being unpacked and commented on, he studied Lady Horace's face. Ina was not so pretty as her sister. She was not so tall, her colouring was less brilliant, she was much quieter. It was a wonder people thought that Lord Horace, who was a fastidious person, had fallen in love with her instead of with the all-conquering Elsie. But Elsie had snubbed him, and Ina was besides very pretty and very much more docile than her sister. She had a sweet little serious face, with a peculiarly delicate complexion, and a tender resolute mouth. The fault of her face lay in the light eyelashes and eyebrows, which gave her a certain insipidity. She had a very gentle manner, and she did not talk much, not nearly as much as Elsie.

She had been only four months married. Hallett asked her how she liked the Dell, and she told him in her childlike way all about her chickens, and her pigs, and the new garden, and the pump Lord Horace was making, and other domestic details. And she asked him various questions about .the working of Tunimba and Mrs. Jem Hallett's management, which showed that she had thrown herself entirely into her bush life.

He said something to this effect.

"Yes," she answered. "I want to make the Dell as much a model of a place in its small way as Tunimba is in its big way. And then, you know, Horace isn't like a regular bushman, he must have his little English comforts"

"Which he insists on combining with his Australian dramatic effects," put in Hallett, "and that must make management a little difficult for you, Lady Horace."

Ina laughed. "Oh, I don't mind," she said. "Now I want to show you the last improvement," and she took him into the sitting-room, which was a very cosey and picturesque place, though the walls were only of canvas stretched over the slabs, and the ceiling, of canvas too, was stained with rain droppings from the bark roof. Lord Horace had been amusing himself by drawing in sepia a boldly-designed flight of swallows along one end of the room.