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to herself Time It circumstance make life.
    Is Wallace's farm a big one, Robbie?"'
    asked Rosie.
    "Well, it's all a matter of what you call big. No, I wouldn't say it was big, anything but.
    Yet it isn't just a smallholding like this. He keeps half a dozen cows on it and a few sheep.
    And he also goes droving at times. That used to be his permanent job, a drover. Why do you ask?"'
    "Oh, no reason."
    "You never ask questions without a reason. Now, why d'you ask?
    'Well, I saw the son, Jackie...isn't he called Jackie? And he was in our pine wood the other day."
    Robbie stopped what he was doing and turned to her and said, "to your pine wood? What was he doing there?
    He'd better look out for your father, hadn't he?
    Especially if he's got his gun with him." He smiled.
    "Well, that's what I thought."
    "Was he picking up wood?"'
    "No; he was just walking, and he jumped the railing and went into the field... Is Mrs Wallace a nic woman, Robbie?"'
    11-" he gave a bit of a laugh as he said, ds on what you mean by nice. To be nice ce character... kindly?"'
    ist nice."
    le's pretty, and lively in a sort of way.
    But
    her into your mind?"'
    ?"' His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. is Rosie: if she asked a question it was thought. She was fast growing up; she iuch of a tomboy now. In fact, that phase have lessened during these last few resisted putting his arm around her shouling, 'Come on, spill it. You know me, I'll you." That was a tactic he had used when ning wild; but now she was turning into ly. The youngest of the Steel bunch, the Jrthem. What was he going to do about it? What bar every do about it? He knew what would happen, bar get a bullet in the back some dark night. He bar But told himself he wasn't afraid of anybody on t earth that he was like his father, but that was J0Us were facing an enemy, one you knew, to a B degree, what he was about. But you never bar what Simon Steel was about; he worked in the Jye, and in more ways than one. It wouldn't be Je had got wind of...?
    He swung round and "at her; but he couldn't see her face, for she leading over the calf and saying,
    "As it's a bull, on't have to shoot it, will you?"'
    ot it?"' His voice was loud. 'Good gracious! no. Bhim up and let him out for breeding, more
    'I'm glad of that; I can't bear the thought of i[ going to market."
    "Mine never go to market."
    "The hens and ducks do."
    "Oh, well" comhe wagged his head- "only when they're vey old."
    "I don't know how you can kill a chicken, or a duck, or a goose, when you love animals so."
    "Oh, Rosie! I'm not feeling inclined to give you a lecture on life and the sustaining of it.
    But what I do want to know is why you are glum these days? Anything wrong over the wall?"'
    "No; only that Helen will soon be gone and the Marion wil follow, and I'll be left."
    "With only me?"'
    She turned now and laughed at him and at the face he was pulling, and she said, "Yes; and isn't that pros pect awful? Only you!" Then she thrust her hand out towards him as if pushing him away, saying, "Oh, you'll always be there, or here."
    It was a moment before he answered her, when he said,
    "Yes, Rosie, I'll always be there, or hereWhere you off to now?"'
    "I'm going home; it will soon be teatime. But I'o not going by the front road or the river track, I'l1 going to cross the fields and up the pine walk. B seeing you."
    He didn't answer but stood watching her walk t the far end of the grounds, climb the fence, then cros! the field. And he remained so until she had disap peared from his view.
    There was something wrong with her, somethio! on her mind. He knew his Rosie. Oh yes,
    he kn
    bar bar The Obsession 37 bar tosie. But his Rosie didn't know him, not yet at ead of going straight to the house, Rosie made e gazebo that lay beyond the tennis court, and bar slie sat down. She wished she had someone to @.E
    greater-than . But whom could she confide in about this bar bar bat was on her mind? Because she might be 1 But then again she knew she wasn't