Then they all met at dinner at Mrs.
Geoffrey Linton's, where they found her son, Cecil, who greeted Norah
with something of embarrassment. There was an old score between Norah
and Cecil Linton, although they had not seen each other for years;
but its memory died out in Norah's heart as she looked at her cousin's
military badge and noted that he dragged one foot slightly. Indeed,
there was no room in Norah's heart for anything but happiness.
The aunts and uncles tried hard to persuade David Linton to remain a few
days in Melbourne, but he shook his head.
"I've been homesick for five years," he told them. "And it feels like
fifty. I'll come down again, I promise--yes, and bring the children, of
course. But just now I can't wait. I've got to get home."
"That old Billabong!" said Mrs. Geoffrey, half laughing. "Are you going
to live and die in the backblocks, David?"
"Why, certainly--at least I hope so," he said. "I suppose there must
be lucid intervals, now that Norah is grown up, or imagines she is--not
that she seems to me a bit different from the time when her hair was
down. Still I suppose I must bring her to town, and let her make her
curtsy at Government House, and do all the correct things--"
Some one slipped a hand through his arm.
"But when we've done them, daddy," said Norah cheerfully, "there will
always be Billabong to go home to!"
CHAPTER X
BILLABONG
"Will it be fine, Murty?"
The person addressed made no answer for a moment, continuing to stare
at the western horizon with his eyes wrinkled and his face anxious.
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