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

44 THE FOOT OF TIME
up on its starboard quarter. Soon with another
bend to starboard she passed the Taronga Park
Zoo, and so past Garden Island to Sydney.
Clare decided upon searching the Blue Mountains
for the seclusion which she sought, and lost
little time in setting about it. Taking train from
the Central Railway Station, she ran through the
suburbs of the southern capital, past the city of
Parramatta sweltering in its low level, along to
Penrith at the foot of the range—little better in
point of heat—and so with much snorting of resentment,
made amends for by the engine's really
melodious whistle, up the mountains. Springwood,
at twelve hundred feet, invited by its cooler clear
air and pretty views, but Clare wished to live at
least two thousand feet up, and alighted at Hazelbrook.
On a spur with a beautiful view facing east and
south, Mrs. Swinton found the very thing she
sought. A cottage with two bedrooms, kitchen,
sitting room, and with a wide verandah all round,
the "Queensland" type bungalow. There being no
water supply laid to her particular mountain
spur, a light petrol engine drawing from a
small road-fed dam to two elevated tanks
supplied the needful. Otherwise, the cottage
which was on offer at a ridiculously low figure,
tt
walk in, walk out," as the owners, acting without
an agent, put it: appeared particularly civilised if
quiet to a degree. But Clare was in no mood to
mind solitude. The snug little home boasted a baby
grand piano from Brinsmead, London, an up-
THE FOOT OF TIME 45
to-date all-electric wireless set and electric points
at every conceivable vantage spot, even including
four on the prettily shaded verandahs.
The garden affected roses as the piece de resistance,
a few vegetables, and last but not least, an interesting
view Sydneywards. Brought up in old
England, and in contrast to the fogs of Darjeeling,
the wonderful Australian visibility was a revelation
to Clare.
She decided upon the cottage, paid down the
sum asked with alacrity, and took prompt possession,
staying indeed as the guest of the owners
for a week to give them time to pack up.
Clare had decided to do without a maid, at first
at any rate, but man proposes in this sphere, while
even in independent Australia the disposition is still
left in other hands.
Still but a matter of weeks (which seemed years)
from the time Clare rushed heart-broken from
Darjeeling to her lawyers in Calcutta, sailing immediately
afterwards for Sydney, nausea in the early
mornings brought a great wonder to Mrs. Swinton.
A suspicion that her trouble had upset her might
have a different explanation.
The totally unusual symptom of sickness was
followed after a few weeks by the most extraordinary
feeling of physical well-being that Clare had
ever experienced; and physical well-being was the
rule rather than the exception with her.
Before very long she knew for certain. Sir
Bruce, without knowing it, was to be a father; the
father of her boy! She was as certain that it would