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Updated: June 11, 2025
Forgetful of what had occurred when last he was at the station; forgetful of the anger he had felt at her apparent preference of another to himself, he remembered only that Ailleen might be in danger. Without heeding whether he was not himself riding into danger from whence there was no escape, he spurred his horse forward, and galloped off in the direction of the station.
Scarcely had Ailleen, obedient to the elder woman's wish, reached it, when she saw a horseman come through the gate from beside which she had first seen Barellan. He rode rapidly towards the house, and as he approached her heart gave a leap, for she recognized first the grey horse, and then its rider. He saw her as she came up, and waved his hand.
It came to her, with a jealous little twinge, that after all the haste he had shown in riding had been prompted by another girl; and in the midst of her battle with feelings realized and feelings unrealized, the struggle between the important and the unimportant, Ailleen, as a woman, naturally jumped at the unimportant, and clung to it. "That was very good of her. I'm glad you had her advice.
Ailleen exclaimed; and as there was a suspicion of ruffled temper at his proposal, she sought her usual cure by moving her horse forwards, as she could not move about herself. As the horse started, Dickson brought his round in front of it. "Here, I say," he said, "it's no good playing the fool like that. We don't want the others. You come by yourself."
"Oh, I thought yes, it's a shadow," she said, as she walked to the end of the verandah and, leaning her hands on the rail, looked away into the distance. He turned and followed her, and had one of his hands over hers and his arm ready to put round her. "Ailleen, you're all alone now. Let me be your "
There was no time to catch the words that seemed to blend with the laughter, there was no time to learn whether she saw him as she rode past, but there was time enough for his intuitions to work and teach him the originator of the fire and the reason of its existence. Nellie was avenging her defeat by Ailleen.
Ailleen exclaimed, as she came up. "Nellie?" he repeated, his watery eyes blinking and shifting. "Nellie who?" She looked at him for a moment, and then sprang from the saddle. Leaving her horse with the bridle hanging loose on his neck, she stepped towards the belt of scrub behind which she had seen the figure of the girl disappearing.
He mounted his own horse and rode slowly back to the station, striving to form some plan in his mind by which he could explain matters to Ailleen, or at least prevent her from telling his mother of what had transpired. When he arrived at the house, he found Ailleen sitting alone on the verandah.
She felt her arms throbbing as the bruises formed where his hands had gripped; her head was swimming and giddy from the shaking he had given her; her heart was palpitating with fear and emotion; and as she crouched to the ground, there came back to her the words she had said to Ailleen. She had come to the place to think and to pray! The irony of it came to her in her helplessness and misery.
When, some time afterwards, the blind woman came out to the verandah, Ailleen began to carry out her intention. "Mrs. Dickson, I'm going to tell you something," she began. "I hope it won't seem " "Is it about Nellie Murray?" the blind woman asked, with a smile on her face. "Yes," Ailleen answered. "About Nellie Murray and " "I know. Willy has told me already. Don't worry about that, my dear.
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