Hornung Ernest William - A Bride from the Bush стр 15.

So they bore inward, to the left, and Gladys was too thoroughly charmed, and too thoughtful, to say much. And now the cool bracken was higher than their knees, and the sun beat upon their backs very fiercely; and now they walked upon turf like velvet, in the shadow of the trees.

You dont get many trees like these out there, said Alfred.

Well not in Riverina, I know we dont, Gladys reluctantly admitted; and soon she added: Nor any water-holes like this.

For they found themselves on the margin of the largest of the Pen Ponds. There was no wind, not a ripple could be seen upon the whole expanse of the water. The fierce sun was still mellowed by a thin, gauzy haze, and the rays were diffused over the pond in a solid gleam. The trees on the far side showed fairly distinct outlines, filled in with a bluish smoky gray, and entirely without detail. The day was sufficiently sultry, even for the Thames Valley.

And yet, continued Gladys, speaking slowly and thoughtfully, it does remind one of the Bush, somehow. I have sometimes brought a mob of sheep through the scrub to the water, in the middle of the day, and the water has looked just like this like a great big lump of quicksilver pressed into the ground and shaved off level. Thatd be on the hot still days, something like to-day. We now and then did have a day like this, you know only, of course, a jolly sight hotter. But we had more days with the hot wind, hot and strong; what terrors they were when you were driving sheep!

You were a tremendous stock-rider, Gladdie! remarked her husband.

Wasnt I just! Ever since I was that high! And I was fond, like, of that old run knew every inch of it better than any man on the place except the old man, and perhaps Daft Larry. Knew it, bless you! from sunrise you remember the sunrise out there, dull, and red, and sudden to sundown, when you spotted the station pines black as ink against the bit of pink sky, as you came back from mustering. Lets see I forget how it goes no, its like this:

No. But you fairly amaze me, darling. Id no idea you knew any poetry. What is it?

Gordon mean to say youve never heard of him? Adam Lindsay Gordon! You must have heard of him, out there. Everybody knows him in the Bush. Why, Ive heard shearers, and hawkers, and swagmen spouting him by the yard! He was our Australian poet, and you never had one to beat him. Father says so. Father says he is as good as Shakespeare.

Alfred made no contradiction, for a simple reason: he had not listened to her last sentences; he was thinking how well she hit off the Bush, and how nicely she quoted poetry. He was silent for some minutes. Then he said earnestly:

I wish, my darling, that you would sometimes talk to my mother like that!

Gladys returned from the antipodes in a flash. I shall never talk to any of your people any more about Australia! And, by

her tone, she meant it.

Why not?

Because they dont like it, Alfred; I see they dont, though I never see it so clearly as when its all over and too late. Yet why should they hate it so? Why should it annoy them? Ive nothing else to talk about, and I should have thought theyd like to hear of another country. I know I liked to hear all about England from you , Alfred!

Faint though it was, the reproach in her voice cut him to the heart. Yet his moment had come. He had decided, it is true, to say nothing at all; but then there had been no opening, and here was one such as might never come again.

Gladdie, he began, with great tenderness, dont be hurt, but Im going to tell you what may have something to do with it. You know, you are apt to get I wont say excited but perhaps a little too enthusiastic, when you talk of the Bush. Quite right and no wonder, I say but then, here in England, somehow, they very seldom seem to get enthusiastic. Then, again I think perhaps you say things that are all right out there, but sound odd in our ridiculous ears. For we are an abominable, insular nation of humbugs began poor Alfred with a tremendous burst of indignation, fearing that he had said too much, and making a floundering effort to get out of what he had said. But his wife cut him short.

The colour had mounted to her olive cheeks. Denseness, at all events, was not among her failings when she kept calm.

She was sufficiently calm now. I see what you mean, and I shall certainly say no more about Australia. I like a man that is well-bred! Do you remember how Daft Larry used to wag his head and say that whenever he saw you? Youre not one of the low sort, he used to go on; and how we did laugh! But Ive been thinking, Alfred, that he couldnt have said the same about me, if Id been a man. And and thats at the bottom of it all! She smiled, but her smile was sad.

You are offended, Gladys?

Not a bit. Only I seem to understand.