"You're a wonderful man, Jack!" he exclaimed at length. "I wouldn't have believed a fellow _could_ take a windfall as you have done, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. I used to think of you a good deal after you had gone. I thought of you playing the deuce to any extent, but I must say I little dreamt of your building a bush hut to get back to your old way of life! I pictured the town crimson and the country carmine--both painted by you--but I never imagined _this_!" And he looked round the hut in his amused, sardonic way; but there was a ring--or perhaps it was only a suspicion--of disappointment in his tone. The next words were merely perplexed. "And yet," added Dalrymple, "you profess yourself well pleased with your lot!" "So I am--now." "I begin to wish I hadn't changed my mind about going this afternoon." "Why, on earth?" "Because I also begin--to envy you! Come, let's make tracks for the house; I shall have huts enough to look at when I go back to the place that you need never see again." "But I mean to see it again," said Jack as he locked up. "I intend to take my wife out, one of these days; we shall expect to come on a long visit to Carara; and the greatest treat you could give me would be to let me ride my old boundaries and camp in my old hut for a week!" "Nonsense; you stay where you are," was the squatter's only comment. He seemed depressed; his cynical aplomb had quite deserted him. They returned in silence to the house. A shabby-looking vehicle stood in front of the porch; the man said that he had brought a gentleman from Devenholme, and was to wait. The Duke and Dalrymple mounted the steps together. The first person they encountered in the hall was Claude Lafont, looking strangely scared; but a new-comer was in the act of taking off his coat; and, as he turned his face, Dalrymple and Jack started simultaneously. Both knew the man. It was Cripps the lawyer. And he, too, looked pale, nervous, and alarmed. CHAPTER XX "LOVE THE DEBT" Olivia was not a little tired; this was the true explanation of the tears which had driven her upstairs. It was also the one excuse she saw for herself when she thought the matter over in her own room. Jack had devoted the whole morning to her; it was the squatter's turn; and, of course, Jack must invite whom he liked to stay as long as he pleased. To think of limiting his freedom in any such matter at the very outset of their engagement! Yet she had been guilty of that thought; but she was tired; she would lie down for an hour. She lay down for two or three. Excitement had worn her out. It was after five when she awoke and went downstairs. As she did so Claude and Cripps crossed the hall and put on their hats. She hailed Claude. "What have you done with Jack?" "I think you'll find him in the little study at the end of the library." "Thanks."