I smiled.

“Certainly.”

As he led me across the hall I was aware of the big refectory table and the pewter dishes on it, the two suits of armour, one at each end of the hall, the weapons that hung there, the dais at the end towards which he was leading me and where there was also a staircase.

Did I imagine it or did I hear a faint murmur of voices, the slight hiss of whispering and the scuffle of feet? I saw Wilmot look up sharply and I guessed we were being observed.

Wilmot, realizing that I had been aware of something, no doubt thought it would be foolish to ignore it. A faint smile touched his lips.

“You will understand. Miss Clavering, that this is the first time we have received a member of the Family, since …”

“Since we were obliged to sell,” I said bluntly.

Wilmot winced a little and bowed his head. I realized later that in anyone outside the family this coming to the point and calling a spade a spade would have been considered bad taste. I wondered then how Ben Henniker and Wilmot got on together. There was little time for such thought for I was anxious to take in everything. I was led along a corridor and up another staircase.

“Mr. Henniker will receive you in the withdrawing-room, Miss Clavering.”

He opened a heavy oak door panelled with linenfold.

“Miss Clavering,”

“he announced, and I followed him in.

Ben Henniker was seated in his chair, which he wheeled towards me. He was laughing.

“Ha!” he cried.

“So you’re here! Well, welcome to the old ancestral home.”

I heard the door shut discreetly behind me as I went forward to greet Ben.

He continued to laugh and I joined in.

“Well, it is funny, don’t you think?” he said at length.

“You, the visitor. Miss Clavering-Miss Opal Jessica Clavering.”

“It’s certainly extraordinary that I should be named Opal and it was opals that brought you all this.”

“A little gold thrown in,” he reminded me.

“Don’t forget I did very well with that. Come and sit down. I’ll show you the place later.” His shoulders shook with secret merriment.

I shall begin to think you asked me just for the pleasure of showing a Clavering the family mansion.

“Not only that. I enjoyed our meetings and I thought it was time we had another. We’ll have some tea … but later. Now did you tell your family you’d made my acquaintance?”

No. “

He nodded.

“Wise girl. Do you know what they’d have said ? You’re not to darken his doors nor is he to darken ours. Better for ‘em not to know, eh ?”

“Far better.”

“It saves a lot of argument.”

“It also saves a lot of forbidding and disobeying.”

“I can see you’re a rebel. Well, I like that, and as you’ve found out I’m a wicked old man … or if you haven’t you soon will. So I may as well tell you in the early stages of our friendship.”

I was laughing with that laughter of pleasure. So this was the first stage of our relationship, and I was going to enjoy more and more of his stimulating company.

“So you would encourage me to come here even if my family forbade it?”

“I certainly would. It’s good for you to learn something of the ways of the world, and you’ll never learn much if you’re going to cut out this one and that one because they’re not nice to know. You want to know those that are nice and those that are not so nice. That’s why it’s good for you to know me. I’m the wicked man who made his pile and bought the house that wasn’t meant for his kind. Never mind. I won this with the sweat of my brow and the toil of my hands … with my driving pick and my sinking pick, with my shovel and my spider … I won this house and I reckon I’ve a right to it. This house represents to me the goal. It’s like the finest opal ever gouged out of rock.

It’s the green flash of an opal. “

“What’s that?” I asked.

“You mentioned it before.”

He paused for a moment and his eyes were dreamy.

“I said that, did I?

The Green Hash. Never mind. I won all this just as I meant to when I was a young shaver dressed up in livery at the back of the carriage a flunky, you might say, who’s getting his first peep at the kind of life he’s going to have one day. Now you . what are you? You’re one of them, see? We’re on different sides of the fence. But you’re not one of them, are you . deep down inside? You’re not just shut in with your cramped ideas that won’t let you look outside your blinkers.

You’re free. Miss Jessie. You sent your blinkers flying long ago. ” He winked at me. That’s why we get along together .. like a bush fire we get along. I’m going to take you into my own special hideaway. I can tell you I don’t let many see inside there since … Well, I’m going to show you something so beautiful you’ll be glad you’re named after it.”

“You’re going to show me your opals ?”

That’s one thing I wanted you to come for. Now you follow me. “

He wheeled his chair across the room, in the corner of which was a crutch; he reached for this and hoisted himself out of the chair. He opened a door and I saw that there were two steps leading down into a smaller room, which was beautiful with panelled walls and leaded windows. There was a cupboard, which he unlocked, and inside this was a steel safe. Twirling knobs, he opened the safe and took out several flat boxes.

“Come and sit down at the table,” he said, ‘and I’ll show you some of the finest opals that have ever been gouged out of rock. “

He sat down at a round table and I drew a chair to sit beside him. He opened one of the boxes inside which, lying in little velvet hollows, were the opals. I had never seen such beautiful gems. The top row was of great pale stones which flashed with blue and green fire; those on the next row, also of remarkable size, were darker-blue, almost purple-and in the last row the stones had a background which was almost black and the more startling because they flashed fire with red and green lights.

There,” he said, ‘your namesakes. What do you think of them? I see.

Speechless. That’s what I thought. That’s what I hoped. Keep your diamonds. Keep your sapphires. There’s nothing anywhere in the world to beat these gems. You agree with me, don’t you ? “

“I have never seen a great many diamonds or sapphires,” I said, ‘so it wouldn’t be fair for me to be so sure, but I can’t imagine anything more lovely than these. “

“Look at her!” he commanded as, with a gnarled finger, he gently touched one of the stones. It was deep blue and there was a touch of gold in it.

“She’s known as the Star of the East. They’ve got names, these opals. The Star of the East! Couldn’t you see her, there in the sky just before the sun rises and shuts off her light. It must have been something like her that the wise men saw on that Christmas night years and years ago. I tell you this: she’s unique. They’re all unique, these opals. You’ll find others that you think are just like them, then you’ll see your mistake. They’re like people, no two alike. That’s one of the marvels of the universe . all those people . all those opals . and no two exactly alike. And sometimes you find something like the Star of the East and you think of all you’ve suffered . for believe me a gouger’s life is no picnic . and you say it was all worth while. Now, for him who owns the Star of the East, it tells him the best is yet to come, for the Star is rising, you see, and wasn’t it there to announce the birth of the Christ child?”

“So your best is yet to come, Mr. Henniker?”

"You’re to call me Ben. Didn’t I tell you ? “

"Yes, but it’s hard to get used to when you’ve been brought up not to call grown-up people by their Christian names. “

“In here we don’t care what was done because someone said it should be without rhyme or reason. Oh no. We do what’s right for us, and I’m Ben to you as I am to all my friends and I trust you’re one of them.”

“I want to be… Ben.”

That’s the ticket, and that’s the idea. The best is yet to come for me while I’ve got the Star of the East. “

I put out a finger and touched it.

That’s right,” he said. Touch it. Look at the light on the stone. And that’s not the only one. Here’s Pride of the Camp. A fine piece of opal there. Not quite up to the Star of the East, but a fine gem. She came from White Cliffs in New South Wales. A roaring camp, that was. Some prospector had been there and moved on; then some fossickers came by and started to tap round as fossickers do. And what happened? He finds opal… not potch … oh dear me, no. Real precious opal. What a find for a fossicker. Before the month’s out there’s a camp there and everyone’s gouging like made. I was caught up in it. It was my luck to hit on Pride of the Camp.”

“Do you sell them?” I asked.

He was thoughtful for a moment.

“Well, that would seem to be the object, but there sometimes comes a stone that no matter what it can bring you, you just can’t sell. You get a sort of feeling for it. It belongs to you and you only. You’d rather have it than all the money in the world, and that’s plain straight.”

“So all these you are showing me are stones which you felt like that about?”

That’s it. Some are there for their beauty and some for Other reasons.

Look at this one here . See the green fire in it? That cost me my leg. ” He shook his fist at it ” You cost me dear, my beauty,” he went on, ‘and for that reason I keep you.

She’s got fire, that one. Just look at her sitting there. She cares nothing for me. She says, “Oh, if you want me, take me but don’t start counting the cost.” I call her Green Lady, for that was the name of a cat I once had. I’m rather fond of cats. They’ve got a sort of disdainful pride that I like. Have you ever noticed the grace of a cat? How it walks alone? It’s proud. It never cringes. I like that.