"
Sybil Venables clamored for particulars, while her sister resigned
herself to further weariness of the flesh. Rachel put down her cup and
leant forward with curiously expectant eyes. They were sitting in the
cool, square hall, with doors shut or open upon every hand, and the
gilded gallery overhead. Statuettes and ferns, all reflected in the
highly polished marble floor, added a theatrical touch which was not out
of keeping with a somewhat ornate interior.
"It was the character," continued Langholm, "who was making the scene;
and a stranger creature I have never seen on English earth. He wore what
I believe they call a Crimean shirt, and a hat like a stage cowboy; and
he informed all passers that he was knocking down his check!"
"What?" cried Rachel and Sybil in one breath, but in curiously different
tones.
"Knocking down his check," repeated Langholm. "It's what they do in the
far west or the bush or somewhere--but I rather fancy it's the
bush--when they get arrears of wages in a lump in one check."
"And where did you see all this?" inquired Rachel, whose voice was very
quiet, but her hazel eyes alight with a deeper interest than the story
warranted.
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