Then Charnock was his friend.
"It will be an awkward job, but you can indicate the line you think I ought to take." "The line is plain.

You will tell Helen what it means to lose one's crop, and try to make her understand the struggle I've had--how the weather was against me, and the debts kept piling up until I was ruined.
You can describe the havoc made by drought, and frost, and cutting sand.
Then there's the other side of the matter; the hardships a woman must bear on the plains when money's scarce.

The loneliness, the monotonous drudgery, the heat, the Arctic cold." "Miss Dalton looks as if she had pluck.

She wouldn't be easily daunted." "Do you think I don't know?
But when you meet her you'll see that the life we lead is impossible for a girl like that." "It looks as if you wanted me to be your advocate," Festing remarked rather dryly.

"I'm to make all the excuses for you I can, and prove that you were justified in breaking your engagement.