Japat on its way to Sidney, depressed her spirits to some extent but not
irretrievably.

She was very pretty, very smart and delightfully arrogant after a manner
of her own. To begin with, Lady Agnes could see no sensible reason why
she should be compelled to abandon a very promising autumn and winter at
home, to say nothing of the following season, for the sake of protecting
what was rightfully her own against the impudent claims of an unheard-of
American.

She complacently informed her solicitors that it was all rubbish; they
could arrange, if they would, without forcing her to take this
abominable step. Upon reflection, however, and after Mr. Bosworth had
pointed out the risk to her, she was ready enough to take the step,
although still insisting that it was abominable.

Mr. Saunders was the polite but excessively middle-class clerk who went
out to keep the legal strings untangled for them. He was soon to
discover that his duties were even more comprehensive.

It was he who saw to it that the luggage was transferred to the lighter
which came out to the steamer when she dropped anchor off the town of
Aratat; it was he who counted the pieces and haggled with the boatmen;
it was he who carried off the hand luggage when the native dock boys
refused to engage in the work; it was he who unfortunately dropped a
suitcase upon the hallowed tail of the red cocker, an accident which
ever afterward gave him a tenacity of grip that no man could understand;
it was he who made all of the inquiries, did all of the necessary
swearing, and came last in the procession which wended its indignant way
up the long slope to the château on the mountain side.