Part 15 (2/2)

Of the threat the ; he had made similar threats too often before, until she felt he only used theoad her into deeper misery He was merciless and, to all save himself, treacherous--how much she dared not think--but she would not believe that his threat to take her boy froenuine All she could think of, as she sat huddled up on the ground, was to cling to the belief that her boy would not be taken away, and that somehow the mental torture the man's existence caused her, and the physical pain he never hesitated to inflict,shade of the trees another little dra enacted on the verandah of the station-house

Scarcely had Ailleen, obedient to the elder woh the gate from beside which she had first seen Barellan He rode rapidly towards the house, and as he approached her heart gave a leap, for she recognized first the grey horse, and then its rider He saw her as she ca from the saddle a few moments later, he fastened the bridle round the hand-rail which served as the blind wouide to and from the house and the trees, and hastened to where Ailleen was standing at the top of the steps

”I only heard last night, Ailleen,” he said simply, as he came and took both her hands in his ”I--I don't knohat to say; but you know, don't you?”

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak to the only one whose sympathy she really wanted, but whom she did not want to know it

”I hardly knehat to do when they told lanced into once and then avoided--sympathy, love, and tenderness were toowhat she, in the perversity of her feminine way, still wanted to hide ”I didn't knohat to make of it when they told me you were here, till Nellie Murray said I should ride over to see”

It cae, that after all the haste he had shown in riding had been proirl; and in the s unrealized, the struggle between the important and the unimportant, Ailleen, as a wo to it

”That was very good of her I'lad you had her advice Won't you sit down?”

The words were as foreign as they well could be to as in her heart, but they relieved the situation for thewhat she really o to the Flat?” he asked, not heeding her words; ” for you, and father too--or to the Murrays, or anywhere but here? Won't you come now? Mother wants you to co----”

”I promised before----” and her lip quivered for a moment--”to come to Mrs dickson She asked me I don't want to--offend any one, but--she is so kind to me, and she's blind too, poor creature, and all alone”

”But, Ailleen----” he began, and stopped, looking hard at her face, turned half away frolance

”We've found gold,” he went on presently, after a few h for us When I've got enough--when I co along, struggling vainly to put just one simple little senti more and more into confusion and away from what he wanted to say What that was she was quite well aware, and also hat reply she would make to it when once it was said; but for the present, with eternal feminine perversity, she did not want it said, so she saw an iined rider across the paddock, and exclaimed--

”Is that willy dickson over there?”

Tony looked, half angrily

”It isn't anybody,” he said

”Oh, I thought--yes, it's a shadow,” she said, as she walked to the end of the verandah and, leaning her hands on the rail, looked away into the distance

He turned and followed her, and had one of his hands over hers and his arm ready to put round her

”Ailleen, you're all alone now Let me be your----”

”You are alwaysher eyes, and with a barely perceptible movement away from him

The arm that was ready was around and restrained her, and her hand he was clasping was pressed to his breast

”More than that, Ailleen”