"Me?" said Norah. "I'd like to hug you!"

"I wish you would," said Miss de Lisle, knitting more frantically than ever. "You see, this is the first place I've been in where I've really been treated like a human being. You didn't patronize me, and you didn't snub me--any of you. But you laughed with me; and it was a mighty long time since laughing had come into my job. Dear me!"

finished Miss de Lisle--"you've no idea how at home with you all I've felt since Allenby fell over me in the pa.s.sage!"

"We loved you from that minute," said Norah, laughing. "Then you think we can really manage? You'll have to let me consult with you over everything--ordering, and all that: because I do want to learn my job. And you won't mind how many people we bring in?"

"Fill the house to explosion-point, if you like," said Miss de Lisle.

"If you don't have a housekeeper you'll have two extra rooms to put your Tired People in. What's the good of a scheme like this if you don't run it thoroughly?"

She found herself suddenly hugged, to the no small disadvantage of the knitting.

"Oh, I'm so happy!" Norah cried. "Now I'm going to enjoy the Home for Tired People: and up till now Mrs. Atkins has lain on my soul like a ton of bricks. Bless you, Miss de Lisle! I'm going to tell Dad."

Her racing footsteps flew down the corridor.

But Miss de Lisle sat still, with a half smile on her rugged face.

Once she put her hand up to the place where Norah's lips had brushed her cheek.

"Dear me!" she murmured. "Well, it's fifteen years since any one did _that_." Still smiling, she picked up the knitting.

CHAPTER X

AUSTRALIA IN SURREY

The three Australians came that afternoon; and, like many Australians in the wilds of London with a vague idea of distances, having given themselves good time to catch their train, managed to catch the one before it; and so arrived at Homewood unheralded and unsung. Norah and Captain Hardress, who had been knocking golf-b.a.l.l.s about, were crossing the terrace on their way to tea when the three slouched hats caught Norah's eye through the trees of the avenue. She gasped, dropped her clubs, and fled to meet them. Hardress stared: then, perceiving the newcomers, smiled a little and went on slowly.

"I'd like to see her doing a hundred yards!" he said.

The three soldiers jumped as the flying figure came upon them, round a bend in the drive. Then one of them sprang forward.

"Harry!" said Norah.

"My word, I am glad to see you!" said Harry Trevor, pumping her hand.

"I say, Norah, you haven't changed a bit. You're just the same as when you were twelve--only that you've grown several feet."

"Did you expect to find me bald and fat?" Norah laughed. "Oh, Harry, we are glad to see you!"

"Well, you might have aged a little," said he. "Goodness knows _I_ have! Norah, where's old Jim?"

"He's at Aldershot--but you can be certain that he'll be here as soon as he possibly can--and Wally too."

"That's good business." He suddenly remembered his friends, who were affecting great interest in the botanical features of a beech-tree.

"Come here, you chaps; Norah, this is Jack Blake--and d.i.c.k Harrison.

They're awfully glad to see you, too!"

"Well, you might have let us say it for ourselves, digger," said the two, shaking hands. "We were just going to."

"It's lovely to have you all," said Norah. She looked over the tree--all tall fellows, lean and bronzed, with quiet faces and deep-set eyes, Blake bore a sergeant's stripes; d.i.c.k Harrison's sleeve modestly proclaimed him a lance-corporal.

"We've been wandering in that funny old London like lost sheep," Blake said. "My word, that's a lonesome place, if you don't happen to know any one in it. And people look at you as if you were something out of a Zoo."

"They're not used to you yet," said Norah. "It's the hat, as much as anything."

"I don't know about that," Harry said. "No, I think they'd know we came out of a different mob, even if we weren't branded."

"Perhaps they would--and you certainly do," Norah answered. "But come on to the house. Dad is just as anxious to see you as any one."

Indeed, as they came in sight of the house, David Linton was seen coming with long strides to meet them.

"Hardress told me you had suddenly turned into a Marathon runner at the sight of three big hats!" he said. "How are you, Harry? It's an age since we saw you."

"Yes, isn't it?" Harry shook hands warmly, and introduced his friends.

"You haven't changed either, Mr. Linton."

"I ought to be aging--only Norah won't hear of it," said Mr. Linton, laughing. "She bullies me more hopelessly than ever, Harry."

"She always did," Trevor agreed. "Oh, I want to talk about Billabong for an hour! How's Brownie, Nor? and Murty O'Toole? and Black Billy?

How do you manage to live away from them?"

"It isn't easy," Norah answered. "They're all very fit, only they want us back. We can't allow ourselves to think of the day that we'll get home, or we all grow light-headed."

"It will be no end of a day for all of us," said Harrison. "Think of marching down Collins Street again, with the crowd cheering us--keeping an eye out for the people one knew! It was fairly beastly marching up it for the last time."

"It's not Collins Street I want, but a bit of the Gippsland track,"

said Jack Blake. "You know, d.i.c.k, we took cattle there last year.

Over the Haunted Hills--aren't they jolly in the spring!--and down through the scrub to Morwell and Traralgon. I'd give something to see that bit of country again."

"Ah, it's all good country," David Linton said. Then they were at the house, and a buzz of conversation floated out to them from the hall, where tea was in progress.

"Your father simply made me promise to go on without you," said Mrs.

West, as Norah made her apologies. "I said it was dreadful, but he wouldn't listen to me. And there are your friends! Dear me, how large they are, and so brown! Do introduce them to me: I'm planning to hear all about Australia. And a sergeant and lance-corporal!

Isn't it romantic to see them among us, and quite at their ease.

_Don't_ tell them I'm a Colonel's wife, my dear; I would hate them to feel embarra.s.sed!"

"I don't think you need worry," said Norah, smiling to herself. She brought up the three newcomers and introduced them. They subsided upon a sofa, and listened solemnly while Mrs. West opened all her conversational batteries upon them. Norah heard the opening--"I've read such a _lot_ about your charming country!" and felt a throb of pity for the three wanderers from afar.

Hardress came towards her with a cup of tea, his limb a little more evident.

"You're tired," she said, taking it from him. "Sure you haven't done too much?"

"Not a bit," he said. "I'm a little tired, but it's the best day I have had for many a month. I don't know when I enjoyed anything as much as my motor-lesson this morning."

"Con says you'll be able to drive in Piccadilly in no time," said Norah.