"Will you promise to marry me then?" he asked quickly. "Yes, I will, really," she replied, without any hesitation, thankful for the reprieve, which she had been by no means sure of getting. "As soon as the house is built?" "As soon as the house is finished." "No--not finished; that mayn't be next year, nor the year after. As soon as the roof is on?" Rachel paused. "How long does that take?" "Oh, a long time--ever so long." She paused again, with a longer pause. And then, "Very well," she sighed, resignedly. "It is a bargain? You promise faithfully? On your solemn word of honour?" "Oh, don't make such a terrible thing of it!" she protested, with a rather hysterical laugh, that showed signs of degenerating into a whimper. "I _can_ only say I will." "And that is enough, my sweet. I won't require you to reduce it to writing. Your word shall be your bond. It is a long while to wait, but I must try to be patient. At any rate, it is a comfort to be done with uncertainty, and to have a fixed time to arrange for. And now, perhaps, we ought to go and dress. Tell me how much it wants to seven, Rachel; you have the correct Melbourne time." CHAPTER II. THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLES. It was in the afternoon that Lucilla again expected her guests, on the day of the ball given at Adelonga in honour of the coming of age of her absent stepson; and the hospitable arrangements characteristic of bush households on such occasions, were made for their reception on the usual Adelonga scale. All the visitors were to be "put up" of course; and from the exhaustless piles of material stowed away in the ample store-rooms, bed-rooms were improvised in every hole and corner, and beds made up wherever beds could decently go--in the store-rooms themselves, in the school-room, in the laundry, in the gardener's cottage, as well as in the numerous guest-chambers with which this, in common with other Australian "country seats," was regularly supplied. Bright log fires burned on every hearth; bright spring flowers adorned all the ladies' dressing-tables; stupendous viands piled the pantry shelves and filled the spacious kitchens with delectable odours. Servants bustled about with a festive air. Mr. Thornley, in shirt sleeves, brought forth treasures from the remote recesses of his cellar that no one but he was competent to meddle with. Mrs. Thornley moved complacently about her extensive domain, regulating all these exceptional arrangements with that housewifely good sense and judgment which distinguished all Mrs. Hardy's daughters.