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His goodness of heart was known to all, and he was regarded as a general arbitrator among the sometimes restless population of Brennerstadt. His delight at seeing Burke was obvious; he hailed him with acclamations. "I've been meaning to ride over your way for ages," he declared, his rubicund face shining with geniality as he wrung his friend's hand hard.
I'm Donovan Kelly, late of His Majesty's Imperial Yeomanry, and at present engaged in the peaceful avocation of mining for diamonds under the rubbish-heaps of Brennerstadt." Sylvia held out her hand. There could be no standing upon ceremony with this man. She hailed him instinctively as a friend. There are some men in the world whom no woman can regard in any other light.
I must sit up a bit longer. I'll be very good. I want to hear all Kelly's news. I believe I shall have to go back to Brennerstadt with him to paint the town red. I'd like to have a shot at that diamond. You never know your luck when the devil's on your side." "I know yours," said Burke drily. "And it's about as rotten as it can be. You've put too great a strain on it all your life."
As in a dream she heard Kelly still talking about the Brennerstadt diamond, and Guy was asking him questions with a keenness of interest that seemed strange to her. She herself was waiting and watching for Burke, dreading his coming, yet in a fashion eager for it. For very curiously she had a feeling that she needed him. For the first time she wanted to lean upon his strength.
"You're jolly decent to me," she said. "I often wonder why." "You'll know one day," said Burke very quietly. A dust-storm had been blowing practically all day, and the mining crowds of Brennerstadt were thirsty to a man. They congregated at every bar with the red sand thick upon them, and cursed the country and the climate with much heartiness and variety.
"When do you want to begin?" "Very soon," she said energetically. "Tomorrow if you like. I don't think much of Brennerstadt, do you? It's such a barren sort of place." He looked at her. "I believe you'll hate the winter on the farm." "No, I shan't. I shan't hate anything. I'm not so silly as to expect paradise all the time." "Is this paradise?" said Burke. She glanced at him quickly.
"Faith, I'll do it when I get to Brennerstadt," he said to himself vindictively. "But it's friends first, eh, Burke, my lad? Ah, Burke, my boy, friends first!" Was it only a few months since last she had looked out over the barren veldt from the railway at Ritzen? It seemed to Sylvia like half a lifetime.
Politeness, however, forbade her summarily to drop the subject just started. "Do you go to Brennerstadt for the races?" she asked. "I?" said Mrs. Merston, and laughed again her caustic, mirthless laugh. "No! My acquaintance with Brennerstadt is of a less amusing nature. When I go there, I merely go to be ill, and as soon as I am partially recovered, I come back to this."
He knew some of the English people at Brennerstadt, but she dreaded meeting them, and entreated him not to introduce anyone to her until they were married. "People are all so curious. I can't face it," she said. "Mine is rather a curious story, too. It will only set them talking, and I do so hate gossip." He smiled a little and conceded the point.
He still looked at her keenly, but all emotion had gone from his face. "He is tending a bar in a miners' saloon at Brennerstadt." "Ah!" She stood up quickly to hide the sudden pain his words had given. "But we can soon get him out. You you will get him out, partner?" He got to his feet also. The sun had passed, and only a violet glow remained. He seemed to be watching it as he answered her.
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