“Well, I hope we shan’t, any of us, be shopped again for a while,” says he, rather slow like. “It’s bad work, I’m afraid, and worse to come; but we’re in it up to our neck and must see it out. We’ll have another feed and be off at sundown. We’ve the devil’s own ride before daylight.”

“Anybody called?” says Starlight, sauntering in, washed and dressed and comfortable-looking. “You told them we were not at home, Jim, I hope.”

Jim smiled in spite of himself, though he wasn’t in a very gay humour. Poor old Jim was looking ahead a bit, I expect, and didn’t see anything much to be proud of.

We had a scrumptious feed that night, beefsteaks and eggs, fresh butter and milk, things we hadn’t smelt for months. Then the girls waited on us; a goodlooking pair they was too, full of larks and fun of all kinds, and not very particular what sort of jokes they laughed at. They knew well enough, of course, where we’d come from, and what we laid by all day and travelled at night for; they thought none the worse of us for that, not they. They’d been bred up where they’d heard all kinds of rough talk ever since they was little kiddies, and you couldn’t well put them out.

They were a bit afraid of Starlight at first, though, because they seen at once that he was a swell. Jim they knew a little of; he and father had called there a good deal the last season, and had done a little in the stock line through Jonathan Barnes. They could see I was something in the same line as Jim. So I suppose they had made it up to have a bit of fun with us that evening before we started. They came down into the parlour where our tea was, dressed out in their best and looking very grand, as I thought, particularly as we hadn’t seen the sight of so much as a woman’s bonnet and shawl for months and months.

“Well, Mr. Marston,” says the eldest girl, Bella, to Jim, “we didn’t expect you’d travel this way with friends so soon. Why didn’t you tell us, and we’d have had everything comfortable?”

“Wasn’t sure about it,” says Jim, “and when you ain’t it’s safest to hold your tongue. There’s a good many things we all do that don’t want talking about.”

“I feel certain, Jim,” says Starlight, with his soft voice and pleasant smile, whieh no woman as I ever saw could fight against long, “that any man’s secret would be safe with Miss Bella. I would trust her with my life freely—not that it’s worth a great deal.”