and it's a wonder we didn't spill the whole lot between us.
I got away from the window in as much of a hurry as if Jack had cut his leg
with a chisel and fainted, and I was running with whisky for him.
I blundered round to where he was, feeling like a man feels when he's just
made an ass of himself in public. The memory of that sort of thing
hurts you worse and makes you jerk your head more impatiently
than the thought of a past crime would, I think.

I pulled myself together when I got to where Jack was.

`Here, Jack!' I said. `I've struck something all right;
here's some tea and brownie -- we'll hang out here all right.'

Jack took a cup of tea and a piece of cake and sat down to enjoy it,
just as if he'd paid for it and ordered it to be sent out about that time.

He was silent for a while, with the sort of silence that always made me
wild at him. Presently he said, as if he'd just thought of it --

`That's a very pretty little girl, 'Possum, isn't she, Joe?
Do you notice how she dresses? -- always fresh and trim.
But she's got on her best bib-and-tucker to-day, and a pinafore
with frills to it. And it's ironing-day, too. It can't be on your account.
If it was Saturday or Sunday afternoon, or some holiday,
I could understand it. But perhaps one of her admirers is going to take her
to the church bazaar in Solong to-night. That's what it is.'

He gave me time to think over that.

`But yet she seems interested in you, Joe,' he said. `Why didn't you offer