"And the bush fires every Sunday morning, and the
blacks that rush down--what is it? Oh yes, the Block, casting boomerangs
about! There is much spare time on a troopship, Mrs. Linton, and all of
it was employed by the subalterns in telling us what we might expect!"
"I can quite imagine it," Mrs. Geoffrey laughed. "Oh well, Billabong
will be a good breaking-in. Norah tells me you are going up there at
once?"
"Well, not quite at once," Bob said. "We think it is only fair to let
them get home without encumbrances, and as we have to present other
letters of introduction in Melbourne, we'll stay here for a few days,
and then follow them."
"Then you must come out to us," said Mrs. Geoffrey firmly. "No use to
ask my brother-in-law, of course; he has just one idea, and that is to
stay at Scott's, get his luggage through the customs, see his bankers as
quickly as possible, and then get back to his beloved Billabong. If we
get them out to dinner to-night, it's as much as we can hope for. But
you two must come to us--we can run you here and there in the car to see
the people you want." She put aside their protests, laughing. "Why, you
don't know how much we like capturing bran-new English people--and think
what you have done for our boys all these four years! From what they
tell us, if anyone wants to go anywhere or do anything he likes in
England, all he has to do is to wear a digger's slouched hat!"
They stopped in Collins Street, and in a moment the new-comers, slightly
bewildered, found themselves in a tea-room; a new thing in tea-rooms
to Tommy and Bob, since it was a vision of russet and gold--brown wood,
masses of golden wattle and daffodils, and of bronze gum leaves; and
even the waitresses flitted about in russet-brown dresses.
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