the coming of hazel brandon effected something like a revolution at haakdoornfontein, for she was as good as her word, and at once set to work to reform the interior of that easy-going, happy-go-lucky establishment out of all recognition. the table department she kept going on the same lines as the initiation we saw her make, and the same extended to the rooms. no more dust, no more makeshifts. from all sorts of unsuspected places she fished out hidden things. dick selmes, for instance, coming in after a long day’s hunt, stared to find what magic had been wrought in his room. snowy sheets and pillow-cases on the bed, things his host despised as feminine superfluities, equally snowy towels instead of the one cloudy one he had been forced to make shift with; the rickety three-legged washstand with its rusty tin basin had given way to a neat chintz-covered packing-case and patterned crockery—and the empty-bottle candlestick had been disestablished in favour of a brass one. on the same lines had the quarters of the other two been reorganised, except that old hesketh drew the line at sheets. blankets were good enough for any man, he declared, and flatly refused to court rheumatism at his time of life by sleeping between cold, glazy stuff like that.
our friend dick now began to overhaul his kit, and was conscious of searchings of heart as he realised that it was so limited. he had brought little more than absolute necessaries in the way of clothing. greenoak had warned him that he would have to do without luxuries at haakdoornfontein, and, by jingo, greenoak had been right up till now; but greenoak, of course, had not been able to foretell the sudden irruption of a bright, refined, and exceedingly pretty girl upon their rough and ready mode of living.
and hazel brandon was all that. such sunshine did her presence and merry spirits and winning ways create in this sober male household, that the two older members of the same felt almost uneasy, so incongruous did it seem to the quiet and somewhat sombre life of the place. the younger—well, he was in something of a whirl. one thing about the girl puzzled him, and that was how she could be so nearly related to his host. the latter he was very taken with. he was a dear old chap, as he was wont to say; but with all his sterling qualities, old hesketh was certainly not quite his equal from a social standpoint. yet this girl looked absolutely thoroughbred; was, too, in all her ways and ideas. she must have got it on her father’s side, conjectured dick, perhaps correctly.
there was one thing about her that appealed to him if only that he believed he had encountered it in her for the first time. she was so absolutely natural and devoid of self-consciousness. true he had seen the counterfeit of this in other girls of his acquaintance, but it had not seemed to ring true. he had felt sure—again perhaps correctly—that they were doing it for effect; “crowding it on,” as he more tersely put it. but here he detected no trace of any such thing.
“do you think i am such a feeble tottering creature, mr selmes, that i can’t even turn a door handle for myself?” she said one day, when he had bounded across the room—upsetting one chair and barking his shin against another in his anxiety to perform that onerous undertaking for her.
the words were said with a bright smile. dick mumbled something.
“well, i can, then. i’m not one of your helpless english girls who can’t even stick a stamp on a letter for themselves.”
“oh, you’ve been in england, then?”
“haven’t i! for three years. not long, but still i went about a good deal.”
“where?” he asked eagerly.
she named several places; one at which he himself had stayed on the occasion of a shooting party. here was an additional link in common.
“has our young buffalo hunter shot all the game on the farm, greenoak?” said old hesketh, one day as the two sat smoking on the stoep.
“why?”
“because he don’t seem over keen on going after it these days. his gun’ll get rusty if he don’t mind,” chuckled the old man, reaching a handful of tobacco out of his pocket and cramming his pipe.
“the young folks seem to have cottoned to each other,” he went on, between puns. the other had no need to follow the glance—for “the young folks” aforesaid had been visible to him for some time away down the kloof, and the sight, even before his companion’s remark, had set harley greenoak thinking.
so far his charge had given him no trouble. twice he had got him out of a situation which would certainly have cost him his life; in other words, had saved his life twice. that, however, was all in the bond. he thought nothing of that. but here loomed a complication which neither himself nor sir anson had foreseen. both had only taken into consideration mere difficulties or dangers of field and flood; but here was a new side to his responsibility. with his keen insight into character he had sized up old hesketh’s niece on very short acquaintance; and his private opinion was that whoever succeeded in winning the affections of this girl—whether dick selmes, or anybody else—would be a very lucky fellow. but would sir anson be likely to share this opinion? that was the question, and in all probability one to be answered with a negative. he might have other views for his son, or he might object to the latter contracting any tie for the present—or all sorts of reasons. harley greenoak realised that he had some cause for anxiety.
if anything should come of this matter, and sir anson considered that he had failed in his responsibility, he would unhesitatingly forego any remuneration; but his anxiety rested on higher grounds than pecuniary loss. he had a great liking for his charge, and for his charge’s father, and, worse still perhaps, his reliability would stand impugned. now, it was precisely for reliability that harley greenoak enjoyed a reputation little short of infallible, and of this he himself was aware, and, though secretly, was intensely proud.
he wondered if hesketh—sly old fox—had brought about the situation with deliberate design, in order to do a good turn to his kinsfolk. it might well have been—and one could hardly blame him if it were so. instinctively greenoak realised that it would be useless for him to interfere at this stage. he had tried it at an earlier one, though “interfere” is too strong a word for the easy, natural, tactful way in which he had suggested they should move somewhere else. his charge, equally and naturally, but quite good-humouredly, had scouted the idea. hesketh would be hurt, he had declared. he was no end of a jolly old chap, and he, dick, wouldn’t offend him for the world. and then haakdoornfontein was no end of a jolly place, with a different shoot, by jingo, for every day in the year. and greenoak had laughed drily, as he reflected that his charge’s enthusiasm for that form of sport had flagged perceptibly of late. but like a wise man and a tactful one he had known better than to push the suggestion further. things must just take their course, he decided. a matter of this kind was a delicate one, and one in which the man most concerned must judge for himself. at any rate, it was clean outside his own province.
“these young ’uns, you know, will have their heads,” now went on old hesketh, puffing out smoke. “i suppose we took our doses of foolishness, greenoak, when we were at their time. though, i dunno about me. it was just ‘yes or no’ with the old woman, ‘take it or leave it.’ she took it, and managed the place. i don’t know, either, that things haven’t been quieter—well, since i’ve managed it myself,” he added drily.
there lay the summing up of a lifetime; a hard, lonely, matter-of-fact, out-of-the-world lifetime. greenoak nodded. he was not going to make any comment on the situation. he was not going to ruffle his old friend’s susceptibilities by any suggestion that dick’s father might object, more or less strongly, to the said situation and its logical outcome. old hesketh’s social creed was simplicity itself: “black’s black and white’s white, and one white man’s as good as another, and no better.” this greenoak knew.
again he wondered whether hesketh had brought about the situation with a purpose. hesketh was a mine of natural shrewdness, and here was scope for it. dick selmes had spent some three weeks on this wild and remote place, roughing it as he had probably never dreamed of roughing it, his sole companions one old and one elderly man—greenoak was modest, you see. then, enter a bright, pretty, taking girl, who makes the rough places, as by magic, smooth, imports the refinement to which his charge has been accustomed, with one sweep of the wand, and whose personality is in itself a supplement to the sunshine. no contrast could be more strongly marked. assuredly if hesketh had of his own intuition brought off such a dramatic stroke, why, hesketh was more of a genius than the acquaintance of that rugged old recluse would have given him credit for being. but this reflection did not tend to lighten harley greenoak’s private disquietude.
