and a grape-vine near the chimney. We rode up to the end of the verandah,
and Jack called to see if there was any one at home, and Mary came
trotting out; so it was in the frame of vines that I first saw her.

More than once since then I've had a fancy to wonder
whether the rose-bush killed the grape-vine or the ivy smothered 'em both
in the end. I used to have a vague idea of riding that way some day to see.
You do get strange fancies at odd times.

Jack asked her if the boss was in. He did all the talking.
I saw a little girl, rather plump, with a complexion like
a New England or Blue Mountain girl, or a girl from Tasmania or from Gippsland
in Victoria. Red and white girls were very scarce in the Solong district.
She had the biggest and brightest eyes I'd seen round there,
dark hazel eyes, as I found out afterwards, and bright as a 'possum's.
No wonder they called her `'Possum'. I forgot at once
that Mrs Jack Barnes was the prettiest girl in the district.
I felt a sort of comfortable satisfaction in the fact that I was on horseback:
most Bushmen look better on horseback. It was a black filly,
a fresh young thing, and she seemed as shy of girls as I was myself.
I noticed Mary glanced in my direction once or twice to see if she knew me;
but, when she looked, the filly took all my attention. Mary trotted in
to tell old Black he was wanted, and after Jack had seen him,
and arranged to start work next day, we started back to Solong.

I expected Jack to ask me what I thought of Mary -- but he didn't.
He squinted at me sideways once or twice and didn't say anything
for a long time, and then he started talking of other things.
I began to feel wild at him. He seemed so damnably satisfied with the way
things were going. He seemed to reckon that I was a gone case now;