登陆注册
19639600000057

第57章 TWO 1921-1928 Ralph(37)

"She's too young, Mary, she's not yet seventeen," said Paddy quickly, remembering another parental shortcoming; none of his children had been taught to dance.

"What a pity," said Mary Carson.

It was a splendid, sumptuous, brilliant, glorious party; at least, they were the adjectives most bandied about. Royal O'Mara was there from Inishmurray, two hundred miles away; he came the farthest with his wife, sons and lone daughter, though not by much. Gilly people thought little of traveling two hundred miles to a cricket match, let alone a party. Duncan Gordon, from Each-Uisge; no one had ever persuaded him to explain why he had called his station so far from the ocean the Scots Gaelic for a sea horse. Martin King, his wife, his son Anthony and Mrs. Anthony; he was Gilly's senior squatter, since Mary Carson could not be so called, being a woman. Evan Pugh, from Braich y Pwll, which the district pronounced Brakeypull.

Dominic O'Rourke from Dibban-Dibban, Horry Hopeton from Beel-Beel; and dozens more.

They were almost to the last family present Catholic, and few sported Anglo-Saxon names; there was about an equal distribution of Irish, Scottish and Welsh. No, they could not hope for home rule in the old country, nor, if Catholic in Scotland or Wales, for much sympathy from the Protestant indigenes. But here in the thousands of square miles around Gillanbone they were lords to thumb their noses at British lords, masters of all they surveyed; Drogheda, the biggest property, was greater in area than several European principalities. Monegasque princelings, Liechtensteinian dukes, be- ware! Mary Carson was greater. So they whirled in waltzes to the sleek Sydney band and stood back indulgently to watch their children dance the Charleston, ate the lobster patties and the chilled raw oysters, drank the fifteen-year-old French champagne and the twelve-year-old single-malt Scotch. If the truth were known, they would rather have eaten roast leg of lamb or corned beef, and much preferred to drink cheap, very potent Bundaberg rum or Grafton bitter from the barrel. But it was nice to know the better things of life were theirs for the asking.

Yes, there were lean years, many of them. The wool checks were carefully hoarded in the good years to guard against the depredations of the bad, for no one could predict the rain. But it was a good period, had been for some time, and there was little to spend the money on in Gilly. Oh, once born to the black soil plains of the Great Northwest there was no place on earth like it. They made no nostalgic pilgrimages back to the old country; it had done nothing for them save discriminate against them for their religious convictions, where Australia was too Catholic a country to discriminate. And the Great Northwest was home.

Besides, Mary Carson was footing the bill tonight. She could well afford it. Rumor said she was able to buy and sell the King of England. She had money in steel, money in silver-lead-zinc, money in copper and gold, money in a hundred different things, mostly the sort of things that literally and metaphorically made money. Drogheda had long since ceased to be the main source of her income; it was no more than a profitable hobby.

Father Ralph didn't speak directly to Meggie during dinner, nor did he afterward; throughout the evening he studiously ignored her. Hurt, her eyes sought him wherever he was in the reception room. Aware of it, he ached to stop by her chair and explain to her that it would not do her reputation (or his) any good if he paid her more attention than he did, say, Miss Carmichael, Miss Gordon or Miss O'Mara. Like Meggie he didn't dance, and like Meggie there were many eyes on him; they were easily the two most beautiful people in the room.

Half of him hated her appearance tonight, the short hair, the lovely dress, the dainty ashes-of-roses silk slippers with their two-inch heels; she was growing taller, developing a very feminine figure. And half of him was busy being terrifically proud of the fact that she shone all the other young ladies down. Miss Carmichael had the patrician features, but lacked the special glory of that red-gold hair; Miss King had exquisite blond tresses, but lacked the lissome body; Miss Mackail was stunning of body, but in the face very like a horse eating an apple through a wire-netting fence. Yet his overall reaction was one of disappointment, and an anguished wish to turn back the calendar. He didn't want Meggie to grow up, he wanted the little girl he could treat as his treasured babe. On Paddy's face he glimpsed an expression which mirrored his own thoughts, and smiled faintly. What bliss it would be if just once in his life he could show his feelings! But habit, training and discretion were too ingrained.

As the evening wore on the dancing grew more and more uninhibited, the liquor changed from champagne and whiskey to rum and beer, and proceedings settled down to something more like a woolshed ball. By two in the morning only a total absence of station hands and working girls could distinguish it from the usual entertainments of the Gilly district, which were strictly democratic.

同类推荐
  • 本草便读

    本草便读

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 鲁府禁方

    鲁府禁方

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 警富新书

    警富新书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 金华冲碧丹经秘旨

    金华冲碧丹经秘旨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 政事

    政事

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 解围元薮

    解围元薮

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 英雄联盟—团结一心

    英雄联盟—团结一心

    简介:赢!我们陪你疯狂到底!输!我们陪你东山再起!电竞!我们毕生的信仰!钱财!乃是身外之物!我们在乎的不是荣誉!不是钱财!我们只是想给那些质疑我们玩物丧志的家长一个最好的证明!而最好的证明,就是冠军!也只有冠军!才能堵上他们的嘴!也只有冠军!才是我们想要的!
  • 时光不老,我们不散

    时光不老,我们不散

    夏璇就是别人口中那种典型的“坏女人”,个高腰细、长得妖艳漂亮,整天变着法琢磨着怎么抢了老板女儿的男朋友。虽然那位先生英俊潇洒腰缠万贯,但挖老板女儿的墙脚是不是胆子太大了点?她的目的究竟是什么?她和那位先生,到底是谁给谁挖了个坑?飞机上,她美目盼兮,浅笑盈盈,看着那位先生的钢笔滚落到她的高跟鞋边……看,阴谋开始了!可她本是气势汹汹、复仇而来,为什么*后却被他吃干抹净?厉净凉,我要是真的爱上你怎么办?
  • 绝世神魔录

    绝世神魔录

    他们是上古神魔的化身,他们是与生俱来的宿敌,他们是至死不渝的朋友。在这瑰丽多姿的纷纭世界,他们将演绎一曲绝世神魔的壮歌!!!----本书正式停更!
  • 为君解罗裳:妖女倾天下

    为君解罗裳:妖女倾天下

    这东南国,谁人不知,谁人不晓,这要嫁的王爷,是传说中的暴君,杀人不眨眼,嗜血成狂的一个魔君的?圣旨一下,要千家的女儿嫁给东南国国的这个平南王爷,千家一听,仿佛是立马炸开了锅一样的,你不愿意去,我不愿意去,自然,就是由这个痴儿傻儿嫁过去了?
  • 嘉定县乙酉纪事

    嘉定县乙酉纪事

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 恶魔契约:魔王归来

    恶魔契约:魔王归来

    魔界血魅沫艾,成为魔王候选人后被丢到人界,还被弄了个柔弱被人欺的唐家小姐的身份。弱小姐变冷酷女王,几个真心对她的男男女女陪她走上成王之路,可能否走到最后呢?
  • 卦山

    卦山

    本书内容包括:易经八卦、鬼斧神工、琼浆玉液、华严道场、凝固音乐、华严经塔、六六台阶、天下太平、书上有庙等。
  • 异武祖神

    异武祖神

    异能与武术的完美结合,谓之异武,废材公子翻身成为异武者,异武争霸天下,主宰苍生!吸宇吸尽宇宙元气重宙辗压九天十地君临宇宙,异武称王,祖神来袭!!
  • EXO致命伤亡

    EXO致命伤亡

    黄子韬--------你终究是不明白组织给你起这个代号的意义边伯贤-------这一次,让我来守护你朴灿烈-------我们还有重来的的机会吗吴亦凡--------我从来没有怪过你,我只是在怪我自己鹿晗--------原来,任何一张白纸在你身边,都会染成黑色呢Sariel--------我终于明白了,我名字的含义,是杀戮天使,也罢,天使杀戮之后,连恶魔都不配张艺兴----------我来守护你,我唯一的天使