Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land

would not try to find out her identity. But he put subtle questions to Joan about her friends in England and her acquaintance with the higher circles of society in London. On

ly. 'I'm thankful to say that

denly shone in McKeith's

e thinking of her like that?' she

red composedly. 'Tell me

eep-breathing and Concentration to tr

thing. I went to hear Mrs Annie Besant lectur

German Professor who taught B--

, and another called Chris, and a friend whose name is Rosamond-likewise that Rosamond is the

ps smoking, his long legs stretched out against one veranda post, his

plaint for me against the vagaries of their distribution depart

pocket, and, leaning a

glish Telegr

pewriter and examined the co

pointed Sir Luke Tallant new

telling me that. SHE wrote that "Luke" wa

,' replied Mrs Gil

ant a post as that of Governor of Leichardt's Land being given to an unknown man who has never ser

riend of Chamberlain's, a thorough Imper

now hi

ow OF

om

ever be fool enough to fall in love with a woman you've never seen,

, fighting devils of loneliness and worse-with nothing to look at except miles and miles of stark staring gum trees and black, smelling GIDGEE* and dead-finish scrub-and never the glimpse of a woman-not counting black gins-to remind him he once had a mother and might have a wife. Well, can't you see that his only chance of not growing into a rotten HATTER* is to start picturing in his imagination all the beautiful things he's ever seen

ronunciation of gidia

an who prefers the

copper case into the holder and, before beginn

t you've a fair notion of how this cursed, grim, glorious old Bush can play the deuce with a ch

s your picture of the lady-wife? Describe your Ideal

und his mouth showed plainly. He was gazing out into space, far beyond the sun-flecked Leichardt R

everybody else would know it, no matter how many other women there might be in the place. Most big men take to their opposites. Now, though I'm a big man I've never fan

controlled

l Wife perfectly. Go on, Colin. Five foot seven and a good ten sto

Her hair is dark, soft and cloudy looking. And she's got a small head set like-like a lily on its ste

ss between the Venus o

was smili

e goddess or of the angel either. I shouldn't want always to have to load up with a pedestal when we shifted camp, and the only

ee with you entirel

ouldn't wonder if I'd got the sec

ldea smiled

ven't finished your personal descripti

ous-Deep and clear and with a light far down in them like starlight reflected in a still lagoon.... I say, Joan, you remember the old Eight Mile Water-hole on Dingo Flat-mid

ed Mrs Gildea. 'There's no b

se she hates insincerity and flummery, and the world she lives in doesn't satisfy her. Why, it was as

f he felt it a sacred subject; and this in him surprised Joan

e would-IF she r

hether she did care-does care-for that cha

e! How? What

if you hadn't, I'd be pretty thick-headed not to have put two and two together-that the Luke of her letters is Sir Luke Tallant, our new Go

to show that it had, or that there had ever been any question of the so

you. You-a hard-headed Bushman, to be dreaming romantic dreams and falling all of a sudden over head and ears in love with-with a figment of your imagination-just becaus

mind at rest on that score, Joan. And as to my falling in love with-a figment of my own imagination'-he spat the words out savagely-'we'l

ysterical laughter, which mani

mation you desire about the Big Bight country and the probability of a Japanese invasion so soon as our future C

owners of the Leura District. Likewise with a report he had been asked to furnish of a projected telegraph line for the opening of his 'Big Bight Country'. Colin McKeith appeared to be deep in the confidence of the Leichardt's Land Executive Council and to ha

he great Gibbs cablegrammed, in code, approva

expected arrival of the new Governor of Leichardt's Land a cablegram was shot at her from Colomb

WITH TALLA

Gildea did not know whether or not he had read the flowery description telegraphed by a Melbourne correspondent who interviewed Sir Luke Tallant and his party at

his very reticence and something in his expression made Joan suspect that he was puzzled and excited, and would have been glad had she volunteered any information about Lady Tal

feminine instincts. She believed in love and in strange affinities and in hidden threads of destiny-all of w