Behind the homestead a network of dark and bushy kloofs interseamed the hills on that side; which, if a very Alsatia for mischievous wild animals, furnished a compensating element in affording sport to the owner--and his neighbours--in their periodical destruction.

Nor were the voices of Nature stilled in the sensuous glory of the unclouded sunlight. The strange call of strange birds echoed unceasingly, blending with the cheery whistle of the familiar spreeuw, ubiquitous in his sheeny flash from bough to bough, and the far-off, melodious call of the hoepoe, in the dusky recesses of bushy kloofs.

Dove notes, too, in ceaseless cooing, and the shrill, noisy crow of c.o.c.k-koorhaans was seldom stilled, any more than the murmuring hum of bees and the screech of crickets; but Nature's voices are never inharmonious, and all these, and more, blended to perfection in a chorus of praise for a spring-reviving world.

"No--that is too far from you, dearest," objected the girl, as Wyvern dragged forward the most comfortable of the cane chairs for her in the vine-trellised shade of the stoep. "Now, you sit there, and I'll sit-- here," flinging down a couple of cushions beside his low chair, and seating herself thereon so as to nestle against him. "Now we shall be quite comfy, and can talk."

She had taken from his hand the pouch from which he had begun to fill his pipe, likewise the pipe itself. This she now proceeded to fill for him.

"Aren't you afraid of quite spoiling me, darling?" he murmured tenderly, pa.s.sing a caressing hand over the soft brown richness of her abundant hair. "Would you always do it, I wonder?"

She looked up quickly.

"'Would you,'" she repeated "Oughtn't you rather to have said 'Will you'?"

"My sweet grammarian, you have found me the exact and right tense," he answered, a little sadly, wondering if she really had any approximate idea as to how badly things were going with him.

"That's right, then. This is getting quite worn out," examining the pouch. "How long ago did I make it? Well, I must make you another, anyhow."

"That'll be too sweet of you."

"Nothing can be too sweet to be done for you."

If it be doubted whether all this incense could be good for any one man, we may concede that possibly for many--even most--it would not. But this one const.i.tuted an exception. There was nothing one-sided about it, for he gave her back love for love. Moreover, it was good for him; now, especially, when he stood in need of all the comfort, all the stimulus she could give him; for these two were engaged, and he--was tottering on the verge of ruin.

He looked down into her eyes, and their glances held each other. What priceless riches was such a love as this. Ruin! Why ruin was wealth while such as this remained with him. And yet--and yet--Wyvern's temperament contained but little of the sanguine; moreover he knew his own capabilities, and however high these might or might not stand for ornamental purposes, no one knew better than he did that for the hard, practical purpose of building for himself a pecuniary position they were _nil_. Nor was he young enough to cherish any illusions upon the subject.

"You said you had some serious talk for me, sweetheart," he said. "Now begin."

"It's about father. He keeps dinning into me that you--that you--are not doing well."

"He's right there," said Wyvern, grimly. "And then?"

"And then--well, I lost my temper."

"You have a temper then?"

She nestled closer to his side, and laid her head against him.

"Haven't I--worse luck!"

He laughed, softly, lovingly.

"Well, I'll risk that. But, why did you lose it?"

"He told me--he said--that things ought not to go on any longer between us," answered the girl, slowly.

"Oh, he said that did he? What if he should be right?"

She started to her feet, and her eyes dilated as she fixed them upon his face; her own turning ghastly white.

"You say that--_you_? _If_ he should be right?"

Wyvern rose too. The greyness which had superseded the bronze of his face was an answer to her white one.

"I am ruined," he said. "Is it fair to bind you to a broken and ruined man, one who, short of a miracle, will never be anything else?"

"You mean that? That he might be right?" she repeated.

The ashen hue deepened on his countenance.

"In your own interest--yes. As for me, the day that I realised I should see you no more in the same way, as I see you now--that is as _mine_-- would be my last on earth," he said, his voice breaking, in a very abandonment of pa.s.sion and despair. Then with an effort, "But there.

It was cowardly of me to tell you that."

"Oh, love--love!" Now they were locked in a firm embrace, and their lips met again and again. In the reaction great tears welled from her eyes, but she was smiling through them. "Now I am answered," she went on, "I thought I knew what happiness was, but, if possible, I never did until this moment."

"Did you think I was going to give you up then?" he said, a trifle unsteadily.

"Don't ask me what I thought I only know I seem to have lived a hundred years in the last minute or so."

"And I?"

"You too. You have an expressive face, my ideal?"

"Listen, Lalante. How long have we known each other?"

"Since I first came home. Just a year."

"And how long have we loved each other?"

"Exactly the same time, to a minute."

"Yes. And have we ever had the slightest misunderstanding or exchanged one single word that jarred or rankled?"

"Never."

"Why not?"

"Because of our love--our complete and perfect love."

"Yes. Now we have had our first misunderstanding, but not in the ordinary and derogatory sense in which the word is used--and it has only served to cement us more closely together. Hasn't it?"

"It has."

"Then we will sit down again and talk things over quietly," he said.

"You have been standing long enough, after your long, hot ride."

He released her beautiful form from his embrace, though reluctantly, and only then after another clinging kiss. She subsided again on to her cushions.

"After my long, hot ride!" she echoed. "Why, it was nothing. I'm as strong as a horse."