And he kept nodding his head, and saying: 'Yes, I thought so.'
I've often wondered what he was getting at, or if he wasn't getting at
anything at all, but just simply changing a difficult subject--like when
he asked you to make that tea."
"So that's that," he said at last, and talked of England. Presently she
surprised him by saying that she very much wanted to go to Sydney.
"Want to test me among pubs, old lady? Well--I am armed so strong in
honesty that dangers are to me indifferent! I can't help swanking bits
from 'Julius Caesar,' you know--my only Shakespeare play! But it'll be
great to go to Sydney. Only--what are we going for? Shopping?"
She evaded his question, and in a flash he thought he saw the reason for
the journey and became very tender and considerate of her. They made
plans immediately; he was like a child being taken out for the day. He
kept telling her how delightful it was not to be kept on a lead; and she
could have told him how delightful it was not to be at the controlling
end of a lead.
They left Andrew with Mrs. Twist; Marcella was very quiet during the
drive in to Cook's Wall, though for some moments she was almost
hysterically gay. Just beyond the station was a gang of navvies and a
camp; the railway was pushing on to Klondyke; great Irishmen and navvies
from all parts of Australia, drawn by the phenomenal pay, sweated and
toiled under the blazing sun making the railway cutting.
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