country, playing practical jokes upon his opponents, certainly flirting with electors' pretty daughters, and otherwise having what he described as "a good time."
Ina was so quiet that no one ever quite knew what she felt or thought, but Elsie had a shrewd suspicion that she was not perfectly satisfied with her handsome and excitable young husband, and Elsie had heard Lord Horace speak more crossly to Ina than befitted the short time they had been married. To be sure he had apologised very penitently afterwards, and had declared to Elsie that Ina was an angel, which she told him had always been perfectly well known in the family. Lord Horace had added that perhaps it might be better for him if she were not quite such an angel, as she would keep him in stricter order, and there Elsie had agreed. Anyhow, Ina seemed to think that he needed a little keeping in order now, and so she said that as she wanted to do some shopping, and as Goondi was the nearest place where she could buy a yard of silk or a reel of cotton, she and Elsie would go.
It was a queer straggling bush town, with a large and floating population, mostly of miners. The claims, with their heaps of stone and scaffolding of machinery, gave it a different appearance from the ordinary township. All day and night the machinery was at work, and all day and all night one could hear the dull thud of the blasting. There was only one street in the township, but it went up and down hill for nearly two miles. Goondi was all hills and little wooden houses and heaps of stone and mullock, which is the refuse from the crushing. There was only one hotel—a big two-storied wooden house, with verandah and balcony all round, commonly known as Ruffey's. Here the rival candidates were staying. Hallett harangued his mob from the north balcony, and Blake addressed his from the one on the south. Lord Horace was waiting outside the hotel to receive them when the coach drove up. His refined, Greek-featured face looked paler than usual from fatigue and late hours. He was very much excited, and could talk of nothing but the election. He began at once to tell Ina of how he
