One moment he was brazening past deceit with a smiling face; the next, he was in earnest, even he, and that mocking voice vibrated with deep feeling.
"I should have thought all the more of you for being an Australian," continued Rachel, vaguely touched at the change in him, "I who am proud of being one myself.

What harm could it have done, my knowing that ?" "You are not the only one from whom I have hidden it," said Steel, still in a low and altered voice.
"Yet you brought home all those keepsakes of the bush ?" "But I thought better of them, and have never even unpacked them all, as you must have seen for yourself." "Yet your mysterious visitor of the other day--" "Another Australian, of course; indeed, another man who worked upon my own run." "And he knows why you don't want it known over here ?" "He does," said Steel, with grim brevity.
Rachel moved forward and pressed his hand impulsively.

To her surprise the pressure was returned.

That instant their hands fell apart.
"I beg your pardon in my turn," she said.

"I can only promise you that I will never again reopen that wound--whatever it may be--and I won't even try to guess.