e hot, red dawns crept in at the
sides of the bedroom-window. For the shortening of his sleep at one end
did not mean that he could make it up at the other. All that summer he
had fallen into the habit of waking at five o'clock, and not being able
to doze off again. The narrowest bar of light on the ceiling, the
earliest twitter of the sparrows was enough to strike him into full
consciousness; and Mary was hard put to it to darken the room and
ensure silence; and would be till the day came when he could knock off
work and take a thorough holiday. This he promised himself to do,
before he was very much older.

Chapter II

Mary sat with pencil and paper and wrinkled her brows. She was
composing a list, and every now and then, after an inward calculation,
she lowered the pencil to note such items as: three tipsy-cakes, four
trifles, eight jam-sandwiches. John Turnham had run up from Melbourne
to fetch home wife and child; and his relatives were giving a musical
card-party in his honour. By the window Jinny sat on a low ottoman
suckling her babe, and paying but scant heed to her sister-in-law's
deliberations: to her it seemed a much more important matter that the
milk should flow smoothly down the precious little throat, than that
Mary's supper should be a complete success. With her free hand she
imprisoned the two little feet, working one against the other in slow
enjoyment; or followed the warm little limbs up inside the swaddling,
after the fashion of nursing mothers.

The two women were in the spare bedroom, which was dusk and cool and
dimity-white; and they exchanged remarks in a whisper; for the lids had
come down more than once on the big black eyes, and now only lifted
automatically from time to time, to send a last look of utter satiation
at the mother-face. Mary always said: "She'll drop off sooner indoors,
dear." But this was not the whole truth. Richard had hinted that he
considered the seclusion of the house better suited to the business of
nursing than the comparative publicity of the verandah; for Jinny was
too absorbed in her task to take thought for the proprieties. Here now
she sat--she had grown very big and full since her marriage in the
generous, wide-lapped pose of some old Madonna.

Mary, thrown entirely on her own judgment, was just saying with
decision: "Well, better to err on the right side and have too much than
too little," and altering a four into a five, when steps came down the
pass