Coming up from the yard near the where the goats were , Maud Neville stood a moment in the darkened dining-room; and, there, she heard Selwyn begin his story. She dreamed while the first words were spoken, by the change from sunlight to the shadows and quiet of indoors; then understanding arrived, and she stood wide-eared to the end.
Waiting by the table, clad in a cool dress, with a wide straw hat upon her head, she happened upon the telling of that tale, and stood listening until the final word was spoken. In that space life lived and done with. A book opened; the story read. Truth told which could not be . And she must rouse herself from in this quiet room, for outside a sun was shining, and earth still rolled through high heaven.
She lingered among the shadows a little while yet, while the greedy sunlight crept under the verandah roof seeking a way to climb in. Her light fingers moved among the household gods, settling and re-settling them with old skill.
Give her strength to find the way into the sunlight white and . Winter must there, and these tongues of and roll up black. He loved her! Who dared to deny he loved her? Yet now he came less often. He came with gloomy face and brow old with frowns. Truth was too true! Love had learned unloving.
Stay, he loved her a little still and therefore he grieved to speak the truth. He came and came again that he might kill her gently, and lay dead love to sleep upon its broken flowers. Let her thank him for this kindness which had kept her glad a little while. Surely Death thus gently come was not a fearful visitor?
She shook. This was rage her. Hot rage, this moment. This moment, icy hate. Come and gone in fierce breaths. Now storm had passed away, and she stood quiet, trembling a little.
Not to-day this message. Let him love her once more to-night. Let him kiss back her kisses, and she would be strong to-morrow.
A world rolling through its day, and she dreaming in this cool room. Wake up from dreaming. Outside sunlight woos the red earth, and bronze sit upon the stones.
She showed no signs of hurt when presently she came out of the quiet and began the tasks set to do in the brief space of morning that remained. One asked her were she tired. One warned her summer was but begun, and only those who started would last through to the end. She laughed and said she would cause all to look to their . When lunch was ended, to prove the heat of the day had small fright for her, she the verandah for her bedroom, and her cool dress for a habit. At the last moment, when there remained only the saddling, she sought out her father and told him she would be away until sundown. The old man cocked his head to one side in dismay.
"What's taken ye, girl?" he said. "Why not wait for evening and the cool?"
"I'm sick of indoors. I am going now, father."
"Well, it's you to do the riding, girl, and not me. Don't be stopping out after sunset and scarin' us. Where are you going?"
"To the river."
The old man , and she turned and left the house. She saddled Stockings, the with four white legs, she mounted him, and he moved freely down the road, reefing a little at the beginning from good spirits. She checked him to a walk, and presently he ceased to and down the way with head lower as each mile was put behind. Presently hills stood between the camp and her. Presently she was far into the plain. The sun was high up in the sky; the air was hot and without breeze. The red hill sides glared back into the sun's face. The baked bunches of spinifex pushed up their spears from the ground. At the end of several miles she began to fag, although all her task was to sit astride this big horse. Purpose held her moving along the road. The green belt of the river grew up upon the horizon.
Rage and bitterness had spent their hours in her heart and had passed to where such things pass. Now Care came, a lonely child, to suck at her breast. Came too this desire to look upon that beauty which could command men to cast all away and follow—a desire to stare upon it from her high seat on this beast.
The green belt marking the river came out across the plain. The big horse carried her into the shabby country which sheltered the higher trees from the broad face of the land. Rubbish of old floods, long run to the sea, waited in the branches, and here and there high watermark showed above her head. Now she rode among the nobler timber.
It was gentle here among the trees, where quiet shadows laid their cheeks against the path. A lonely bird in the . Water peeped ahead through bending branches. It seemed the Pool had shrunken much after these rainless months.
Presently, when she had passed a long way through the trees, she pulled up Stockings on the bank and looked down into the water. The face of the Pool stared back into her own, and she could mark the lean fishes lolling in cool places, and discover a world of weeds nodding below. Last great lilies of the year bloomed lonely upon the brow of the water. To right hand, to left hand, the face of the Pool extended. ranks of trees followed all the way, bending over in many places to stare at their . Sunlight slipped among their tops, and tumbled into the gloom of their boughs, and splashed upon the water with noiseless splashes. Shadows with dusky faces peered round the tree trunks to know who came thus to look with sad face upon the of an afternoon.
She had quietly to the bank, and now she discovered wild birds upon the of the Pool. Fat ducks floated, with bills laid to rest in gorgeous . paddled in loneliest places and sank among the weeds.[Pg 226] Strange birds in the hot soft mud. And in all corners—melodiously hidden—butcher birds called and called again, tiny birds with canary breasts flitted in the boughs, and sharpened their bills on the roughness of the bark; and kingfishers skimmed the water on shining, whirring wings.
She laid the upon the neck of the big horse which stood so still, and as she looked the message of peace laid a quiet finger upon her heart. She told herself the beautiful child who had so harmed her had a home by this gentle place, and so she could not be a stranger to kindness. She would the damage . He who had wandered away after false gods saw every day this fair scene, and his heart must still have understanding. She turned Stockings from the Pool right-handed, and threaded a way along the bank. She began to wonder what to do when she would find herself face to face with the girl. She wondered if had mistold of her beauty, and she grew bitt............