When he talked to her--which was
prudently when no one else was about--Norah felt a complete rustic, and
was well assured that the girls at Melbourne would very soon put her in
her place, even if they did not openly resent the presence among them
of a girl reared in the country, and in so unusual a fashion. She even
wondered miserably sometimes if Dad and Jim were rather ashamed of her,
and did not like to say so; it was quite possible, since the city boy
evidently held her in such low esteem. But then would come a summons
from her father, or Jim would appear and bear her off imperiously on
some expedition with him, and she would forget her fears--until the next
time Cecil persevered in his plan of educating her to a knowledge of
her own deficiencies. It is not hard for a boy, on the verge of
manhood, to instil ideas into an unsuspecting child; and Cecil's
tuition gave poor Norah many a dark hour of which her father and the
other boys never dreamed. It would have gone hard with Cecil had they
done so.
Between cricket-practice, occasional rides and exploring expeditions,
boating on the lagoon, and fishing in the river, to say nothing of much
cheerful intercourse, the days passed quickly--at least to most of the
inhabitants of the homestead, and when Wednesday came Norah rode across
the run with her father to see him on his way to Killybeg.
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