"No! vegetables both! I grant you that Dom is not an everyday girl; she is quick and all alive, O! and she never bores, but keeps your wits on the stretch all the time. She is not a bit like any woman I have ever met before, and that is what appeals to me. She is awfully plucky, too. One night we drove over a buffalo, and were pitched out on the road, and, I give you my word, she simply shrieked with laughter." "Pray, what is going to be the end of this?" inquired his cousin in a cool, judicial tone. "Oh, I don't know----" "Still in the early chapters of the romance, eh----?" "Yes; when it begins to get a bit--er--dull, and we are bored--we will say ta-ta; that's all!" "All?" ejaculated his visitor. "Well--I say, hang it, Malcolm! A fellow must have some amusement!" "Play to you, and death to her--reputation." "Oh, Dom will take good right care of that--I tell you----" "And I tell you that if you play fast and loose with Dom she is just the sort of girl that would--kill you!" "Oh, Lord! here we have a five-act tragedy in two lines! A tragedy generally makes me howl with laughter. Well, now I must go in, and shave and dress. I say, if you like, I'll drive you round by Manora this afternoon. It's a pretty sort of settlement--lots of trees and greenery--on the river side. We won't stop, but I will point you out the roof which shelters the Misses Chandos--your lady love, and mine!" And tossing the end of his cigarette into a bush, he called for his boy, and disappeared indoors. CHAPTER XXX That same Sunday afternoon Mrs. Chandos, having recovered from her "seizure" went out into the front garden in order to "eat the air" in solitude. The Trotters were also abroad, but she turned her back upon them, and walked down the little drive and gazed along the road with an expression of grim resentment. But what was this which she beheld speeding towards her? A grey stepping horse, a dog-cart, and two gentlemen--and at what a pace they came! Indeed, they were all but past before the driver discovered her, and pulled the grey on his haunches. "Oh, good day, Mrs. Chandos," said Captain Haig; "I am so awfully sorry I was not able to come to tiffin. I was--prevented," here Jimmy gave him an approving nudge, "from accepting your kind invitation." "Aye, and so you have come to tea instead. All right, come in--come in----" "I am afraid we cannot wait, thank you." "Oh, my! but why not? The girls are at home," and she put her hand on the wheel of the cart as if she would detain them by physical force. Captain Haig merely shook his head. "And poor Verona will be _so_ disappointed," urged the persistent matron. "I am sorry, Mrs. Chandos," interposed Jimmy, leaning across, "but I must really take him away. We have an important engagement." "Ah, but here is Dominga!" cried her mother in a tone of triumph, as Dom, in a French muslin costume, came flitting to the gate. "You know my daughter, Dominga, Captain Haig?"