Miles himself was by no means sure that he approved of the arrangement. He would have preferred to walk behind Cynthia, and admire her pretty hair, her tiny feet, and the general air of daintiness which was to him the greatest charm of all, but he had not the slightest idea what to say, and thought of the long walk before him with something approaching consternation. Fortunately for him Cynthia was not in the least shy, and had so seldom an opportunity of talking to anyone of her own age, that she could have chattered away the whole afternoon without the slightest difficulty. "It isn't often _you_ have a holiday, is it?" she said, smiling at him in her bright, friendly manner. "Once when I was up very early I saw you going out before six o'clock, and now if I'm awake I hear the door slam--you do slam it very loudly, you know!--and know it is you going out to your work. It makes me feel so lazy, because I am supposed to do half an hour's practising before nine o'clock breakfast, and I do feel it such a penance." Miles laughed shortly. "Did you ever see me coming back?" he inquired, and when Cynthia nodded, with a twinkle in her eye--"Betty was afraid you would believe I was a _real_ workman," he told her. "She thought you would put us down as quite impossible people, having a workman living in the house!" "Betty is a goose," said Betty's new friend cheerily, "but she is a nice goose. I like her. I guessed you were learning to be an engineer, because I have a cousin who did the same. I like a man to do manly work. I suppose you are dreadfully interested in all those noisy engines and things. Tell me about them." It was rather a large order, and Miles would have answered shortly enough if an ordinary acquaintance had put such a question, but there was a magnetism about Cynthia which broke down reserve, and to his own astonishment he found himself answering quite easily and naturally. "I am not studying for railway engineering--I am going in for mines. It's a different course altogether, and in some ways much more difficult. There seems nothing that a mining engineer ought not to know--assaying, and surveying, and everything to do with minerals, and, of course, a thorough understanding of pumps, and all the machinery employed. Then he ought to know something about doctoring, and even cooking, if he wants to be an all-round success, for ten to one he will be sent to some out-of-the-way wilderness where there is no one else to look after the comfort of his men--" "Is that what you intend to do? Go and bury yourself at the end of the world?" "I expect so--any time after the next six months. I shall have finished my course by that time, and be on the look-out for the first opening that comes!" "What will Betty do without you?" Betty's brother shrugged his shoulders with the unconcern with which, it is to be feared, most lads regard their sisters' feelings.