The Foot of Time: A Novel of Australia and the South Seas: (1933)

CHAPTER XIX.
AUNT FLORENCE SUSTAINS CONSULTATION.
"AUNTIE, whatever shall I do? Bruce hasn't
returned!"
Florence Tooth shot upright in her chair.
Not by the flicker of an eyebrow could Edith
detect what her Aunt was feeling, what she was
suffering, in anticipation of the outcome of the
intelligence.
"Of course he hasn't come back! Two months—
two months in the South Sea Islands! Why, child,
it isn't long enough in which to eat a mango! Stuff
and nonsense! Don't tell me! Eight weeks, and
some of them lopped off by the voyage there and
back! There, child, don't go and fret yourself.
He'll come back all in good time. They all do.
Don't I know, 'em!"
"Yes; but, Auntie, it's—it's most awfully serious.
The 'Varsity, yon know, and—and—why, he
might be 'sent down'!"
"Sent down fiddlesticks, Edith! Young men of
the promi-se of Master Bruce (whatever his other
name is) don't get thrown out of Universities because
they turn up a bit late to prayers. Stuff and
nons-
"But, Auntie, I'm so frightfully worried—that
THE FOOT OF TIME
awful cyclone, you know. He might be hurt—
sick. Auntie, Bruce may be dead!"
"There, lovely, don't fret yourself. I'm as certain
your boy is alive as I'm certain I am."
"Oh, it does do me good just to hear you say
that, you darling old thing! Do you really think
—think it will all end up—"
"It will all end up for the best, my dear—of that
I'm certain, and," the old lady added to herself,
and it had to come. Florence, my dear, you always
said so. What did you say? Let the boy have his
fling, but for the Lord's sake, let it be a real fling
while he is about it! No half larks—a real out and
outer! Let him throw off all those oat crops before
he takes my darling, or he'll throw 'em off
afterwards. Don't you know 'em, Florence, my
dear? Stuff and nonsense! Didn't you expect it?
Didn't you see it coming? Of course you did! And
now, my dear, you've got to get 'em out of it; God
Pity you! Well, it will be practice for the bigger
issue, when old chapel Bill gets busy with his niggardly,
heavenly opinions. Well, if he's bound
there, it's no odds. You won't meet him, my dear."
So ran the thoughts of Florence, the while her personality
dominated Edith. The girl sensed that her
Aunt was hopeful of the nett result of this most
awful and unaccountable absence, and that fact in
itself cheered her no end.
"Have you told your father? Have you told
William the—"
"Now, Auntie, I won't have you run Daddy
down. You know that."
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