‘What part of the country are you going to, Alice?’ demanded Miss Vere, with a view to turning the conversation. ‘We go straight home to Paradise Farm in the Hurunni, which is about sixty miles from Christchurch. Father will meet us on arrival, and take us up country. Isn’t it strange? He has never seen Winnie yet, and I do not suppose he will recognise me. I was only fourteen when I left New Zealand. How glad I shall be to see it again.’ ‘You love a country life, Miss Leyton?’ said Lovell. ‘Oh, dearly! My father has a large sheep-run close to the Weka Pass, and we live right up in the bush, with not another house within ten miles of us. I shall milk the cows, and look after the garden and the poultry, and teach baby as much as I know myself. It is just the sort of life I love. I hate streets and towns, and a lot of houses all staring at one another.’ ‘And a lot of officers staring at you,’ said Jack Blythe, looking in at the open door. ‘Come, Alice; be honest! You know you liked the officers at Southsea.’ ‘Ah! I was young then, and knew no better,’ replied Alice, blushing; ‘but now I am wiser.’ ‘What a wonderful effect the sea air has had upon you,’ remarked Jack, laughing. ‘I have heard it is considered a cure for love, but never before for vanity.’ ‘Oh, now, Jack, do go away!’ exclaimed Alice; ‘you are interrupting all our conversation.’ ‘Yes; and coming in just at the wrong time, and spoiling the effect of your pretty speeches. It was awfully inconsiderate of me. I will atone for it now. I will go.’ And he disappeared. ‘What a bright, handsome face Mr Blythe has. I think he is one of the finest young fellows I ever saw. I wish he was in my company,’ remarked Miss Vere. ‘Oh, Miss Vere! I wish you would take _me_ into your company, don’t you know?’ sighed Mr Greenwood. ‘I would do anything for you, ’pon my word I would,--play parts, or take the tickets, or sweep out the theatre,--anything, only to be near you--to see you--and feel I was of some use, don’t you know? Couldn’t you manage it, eh?’ ‘Why, Mr Greenwood, what do you mean by talking of prostituting your talents by sweeping a floor?’ cried the actress, heartily amused. ‘What would your family say to such a degradation? No, no! What you have to do now is to learn your part for our theatricals, and when they are over, we’ll talk about the other thing. But we have interrupted Alice in her description of her New Zealand home.’ ‘There is not much more to tell,’ said Alice. ‘It is lovely, as I remember it, and I hope I shall think it lovely still. But--’ with a long-drawn sigh--‘it is the _people_, and not the _place_, that make a home.’ ‘Just my sentiments,’ replied Captain Lovell. ‘I am going to Geraldine, but I have no friends there.’ ‘You will be a long way from us,’ said Alice timidly. ‘Yes. But I suppose there is some sort of conveyance between the places.’