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

....11*.1.1m.. ■■ ■■■ ■ - .
222 THE FOOT OF TIME
"Well, I'm flambusted!" gasped Burne, wiping
his brow in perplexity. "Now, if anyone had told
me that a child of mine would have had the
wicked audacity to speak to me like what you
have, Edith, I'd—there, if you'd been a son, now,
damme, I'd chastise you for it!"
"Oh, dear no, you wouldn't, Dad," the girl
defied him. "If I had a brother he'd have knocked
your bigotry down your throat."
"Now, hark to the like of that, Ma!" Burne addressed
his wife, who, hearing the raised voices, had
quietly entered the room. "Did ever you hear the
like of that, now?"
"The girl's distraught, William, what with one
thing and what with another. Why must you be
forever judging others?"
"Well, if I won't for to be flambusted!—the
two of you'se agin me now."
"I'm not against you at all, Bill; you know that.
I agree with every word you say, but don't rub it
in, man. Our Edie'll obey your wishes in all things
without that, won't you, darling?"
"I won't have Dad run down any of my friends
—my old friends, that's all," Edith told her
Mother rebelliously. "If I wanted to marry Bruce
Swinton I'd marry him. But I don't. I don't care
what his father is—he's nothing to do with me.
Dad's a darling when he is sensible, but when he
gets on to his pharisee stunt I loathe it, that's all."
"Well, if I won't be flambusted!" repeated
Burne. "Jest hark to the like of that, now!"
CHAPTER XXIII.
WILLIAM BURNE SPEAKS OUT.
SOME months had passed since Bruce had arrived
back from Tuamonti. Things had gone the fairly
even tenor of their way, when tidings came to
Florence from the Consulate at Fungi concerning
those on the island across the stretch of the Pacific
separating the trading port from the Eden which
was called Tuamonti. Again the beautiful spot had
been smitten tooth and thigh. An appalling -visitation
of virulent pneumonic influenza, sweeping
down from insanitary Russia, had devastated many
an island.
While some had been completely depopulated,
others had shared all too badly, if in a lesser degree.
The French official visiting Tuamonti had found
but a handful of natives alive to tell of the plague.
Their chieftain and all his family had gone. One
of the last to contract the visitation was the halfcaste
baby. In better hands the child would have
won through, but from the first he had no chance,
and died in his sleep, so the Consul was told, after
a long and painless period of unconsciousness.
Upon receipt of the news, Florence's first
thought was for Edith. The news was like to have a