Australia, with a wardrobe at last beginning to fret about the hem, and
shine around the seams, a condition accounted for by the emaciated
condition of her purse; a memory of good things and hours worn thin by
the constant nerve-wracking routine of capsules, hot drinks, hot water
bottles, moods and shawls; and a fully developed rebellion in her whole
being against the never-ending vista which stretched far into the
future, of other such hours, days, months, yea! even years!

But everything was capped by a still more fully developed decision to
brave it out, and out, and out, rather than return to ask the help of
those whose hand-clasp had weakened in ratio to the dwindling of the
gold in her coffers.




CHAPTER III

And why did she stand by herself?

This is no riddle, the answer being too easy. Men would have answered,
"Guessed in once, she was pretty!" And the women would guess in once
too, but would keep silent, the pretty ones merely smiling, having
sampled the Coventry-sending powers of plain women in the majority on
board, and the plain ones from that unwillingness inborn or inherited
in every woman to admit good looks, or good anything for that matter,
in a member of her own sex.

And she _was_ pretty, with the prettiness of youth allied to genuine
red-gold hair, and the bluest of blue eyes, which looked at you in