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

178 THE FOOT OF TIME
opined Mr. Burne to his second and smaller half.
"I sometimes tremble for the effect of that there
'Varsity upon our little girl. But it'll take mor'n
Sydney and its wicked ways to push the truth out
of our gal, Mother. Praise His Holy Word! Hallelujah!"
"Amen to that, William, dear," finished his
spouse, that being the formula; expected of her.
And so Florence sped upon her way with never
a thought of seasickness, unless possibly one kept
very much to herself. She gave every man and
woman her ear, but few her voice, and passed with
inconspicuous tolerance. "Rather a dear, I should
think, if you know her, but she'd take a devil of a
lot of knowing," about summed up the general
consensus of considered opinion on board where
Florence was concerned.
The vessel made Fungi in good time, where the
old lady disembarked. Here Florence gave a greater
number of people her ear and fewer her tongue,
got out her toys, hired a fair-sized launch, and
leaving definite instructions behind her that if not
returned within two weeks the launch was to be
sent for, she departed from Fungi for Tuamonti.
Away upon the island, if Bruce did not feel
his ears burning, then the supposition is without
veracity.
As to Florence, she had never been so tickled in
all her life. Somewhat eased in mind by the tidings
which Fungi's native bazaars had indirectly whispered
to her, she had no anticipation of finding the
runaway anything but alive. Probably very much
so. The future could take care of itself. She was
THE FOOT OF TIME 179
here to get Bruce by the scruff of his neck and take
him home. A fiery fixed determination carried her
on.
And so while Edith Burne in New South Wales
attended her father's chapel at Orange, while Clare
Swinton wonderingly (knowing much and suspecting
more) looked on, Florence Tooth stepped
ashore upon the firm sand of Tuamonti to interview
the renegade.