They were coming from the chess table. It was Rex speaking with more intensity than I had ever heard from him before.

“You … devil.”

He could only be addressing Gareth Glenning; and anyone less like a devil it would be hard to conceive.

I suppose he has put him in check, I thought idly. But how vehement he had sounded and then I heard Gareth’s laugh. It was unpleasantly mocking.

I must have been half asleep and full of fancies. They were merely playing their favorite chess together and I suppose Gareth was winning.

Soon, I thought, we shall be in Sydney and then it will be quite different. So many will have left us. Rex, the Glennings, Mrs. Malloy and all the passengers. The only ones who will remain were myself, Edward, Chantel, and Monique. And once we reached Coralle there would be change again, but I should not be there to see that.

A ship had appeared on the horizon, her sails full blown in the strong winds. The boys came running out to look at her.

“Yankee Clipper!” cried Edward.

“China Clipper,” contradicted Johnny.

They argued together, forgetful of their table tennis. They stood watching the ship while Edward boasted of his superior knowledge gleaned from the Captain.

Miss Rundle strolled along, her big hat tied under her chin by a chiffon scarf to protect a complexion which Chantel had once said was hardly worth the trouble.

“Hello, Miss Brett.” The very way she spoke my name was a reproach. “Have you any objection to my sitting beside you?”

I had, but I could scarcely say so.

“Oh dear.” Her eyes rested on Mrs. Malloy and Mrs. Greenall. “She is not going to like saying goodbye to her officer.”

“I think it’s just a shipboard friendship.”

“I think you are very charitable, Miss Brett.”

Which was more than I could say for her.

“But then …”

She paused with a snigger; but she had really said enough.

“And you will be staying on after we have said goodbye.”

“Only for a short time until we reach Coralle.”

“You’ll have the crew … and the Captain … to yourselves. But you’ll have to share them with the others. How is poor Mrs. Stretton?”

“She is keeping to her cabin, Nurse Loman tells me.”

“Poor creature! What she has to put up with, I shouldn’t like to imagine.”

“Shouldn’t you?” I asked with some irony.

“Dear me no. With a man like that. The way he smiled at me when he said good day …”

“Really?”

“He’s a born philanderer. Yes, I’m very sorry for her … and anyone else whom he seems to fascinate. Of course people should have more sense, and more decency. But I don’t know. People amaze me. There is your friend Nurse Loman … and er …” She looked round at Rex. “What does she think she will get out of it?”

“I don’t think everyone is wondering what they are going to get out of their friendships. Well, they’d hardly be friendships if they were.”

“Oh you’re very clever at talk. I suppose a governess would be. Those boys … How they shout! Shouldn’t they be kept in order? My goodness when I was young …”

“The old order changeth and gives place to the new’,” I said, and thought of Chantel who liked to quote and usually misquoted, as I was probably doing now.

“H’m,” she said.

“It is a Yankee Clipper,” Edward was shrieking. “I’m going to ask the Captain.”

He came running along the deck, Johnny in his wake.

“Edward,” I called, “where are you going?”

“To see the Captain. I want to look through that thing he has up there. It’s wonderful. You can see tilings far away ever so clearly.”

“When did you see it?” jeered Johnny.

“I’ve seen it once … and twice. I have seen it, haven’t I, Anna? I saw it when we were up there. You know that time when the Captain was holding your hand and telling you to wait. That was the time. There was a great big ship then. I asked the Captain and he said it was a Yankee Clipper.”

Miss Rundle could scarcely contain her excitement.

I said: “You can’t go now. What of your game of tennis? Go and finish that.”

“But …”

“You can describe it to the Captain when you see it. Perhaps he’ll show you pictures and you can identify it.”

“He’s got lots of pictures up there, hasn’t he, Anna?”

I said: “Yes and I daresay he’ll show them to you both sometime. But you must remember that he has the ship to look after. So go and finish your game and see them later.”

So we sat on the deck. The ship had sunk below the horizon, and the porpoises were leaping with joy. Rex and Gareth were still intent on the chess board; Mrs. Malloy and Mrs. Greenall were dozing, and Miss Rundle departed. I knew she was looking for someone to whom she could whisper her latest discovery.

The Captain had held my hand and asked me to wait.


* * *

It was fortunate, I believed, that we should soon reach Fremantle. The excitement of coming into port always seemed to smother everything else among the passengers. Even Miss Rundle could not be greatly excited about scandal concerning people to whom she would soon say goodbye forever.

I had no doubt that she had spread Edward’s revelation, but it no longer seemed as important as it was three or four weeks earlier. Mrs. Malloy was less absorbed by the First Officer; that friendship was dying a natural death. She was fussily preparing everything for her landing at Melbourne. Mr. and Mrs. Greenall were in a state of fervid excitement and asking each other twenty times a day whether the grandchildren were to be brought to Circular Quay to meet them.

“Not the youngest, surely,” she told me repeatedly. “Not at his age surely.”

Chantel and Rex were in each other’s company at every possible moment; I was afraid for them. I came upon them once leaning on the rail talking earnestly. I was worried about Chantel. Her indifference was not really natural. Edward and Johnny were the only ones who behaved normally. They would part at Melbourne but in their minds that was, as they would say, ages away. A day in their lives was a long time.

And one morning I awoke and there we were.


* * *

On the quay people stood welcoming the boat wearing long white gloves and big hats trimmed with flowers and ribbons. Somewhere a band was playing Rule Britannia. Redvers had told me that there was a welcome and send-off from Australian ports for ships from England which was “Home” even for those who had never even seen it. On the big passenger ships, of course, people came to meet visitors, but we were essentially cargo. Still we had our welcome and the bands played patriotic tunes.

The children were excited and as I had given them lessons in the history of the countries before we reached them their interest was heightened. They were looking forward to seeing their first kangaroos and koala bears, so Mrs. Blakey and I took them ashore for the few hours we were in port. It was very hot but the boys seemed unaware of this. They kept shrieking their delight; and I must say I was enchanted as we drove along beside the Swan River where the red flowering gum and the yellow wattles made a great splash of color. But our stay was necessarily short and all the time we had to keep our eyes on our watches. During the trip I caught sight of Chantel and Rex riding together in one of the open carriages and I fervently hoped that Miss Rundle would not see them.

Poor Chantel. Soon she would have to say goodbye to Rex. Could she keep up her flippancy, her feigned indifference? I wondered.

And ahead of us — not so far ahead of us — lay our parting with the ship. Soon we should reach Coralle and she and I, with Edward and Monique, would be left behind. Whenever I thought of that a great apprehension came to me. I tried to dismiss it, but it wasn’t easy.

I saw Dick Callum when we came aboard. He was coming out of his office, busy as he often was during our stays in port.

“How I wish I could have taken you for a trip ashore,” he said.

“Mrs. Blakey and I took the boys.”

“Pressure of business prevented me … perhaps a little unnaturally.”

“What does that mean?”

“Some in high places might not have wished me to be free.”

“It sounds very mysterious,” I said and left him. I was really rather delighted that the Captain may not have wished me to be in Dick Callum’s company.

They were just about to take the gangway up when Chantel and Rex came hurrying on board.

She saw me at the rail and she came to me. Rex did not join us but went past.

“That was a near thing,” I said. “You might have missed the boat.”

“You can trust me never to miss the boat,” she said meaningly.

I looked at her flushed, lovely face. I had to admit that she did not look like a girl on the point of saying goodbye forever to her lover.


* * *

At Melbourne Mr. Malloy, a tall bronzed man who was making a success of his property some miles out of the town, came aboard to collect his family.

There was a change in them all. Johnny looked very sober in his sailor’s suit and round sailor’s hat with H.M.S. Success on it. Mrs. Malloy was dressed in a big straw hat with flowers and ribbons more suited to London than to the outback of Australia; but in her gray coat and skirt and pearl gloves and gray boots, she looked very attractive. Mrs. Blakey also wore her best clothes.

They seemed like strangers, no longer interested in their shipmates, no longer a part of us.

Mr. Malloy carried them off and they invited Edward to go and see them sometime in the vaguely cordial way people do when they know the invitation will never be accepted. Then they were gone, out of our lives forever.

It was going to make a difference to me. Edward would miss his friend, and I would miss Mrs. Blakey’s help.

Miss Rundle was at my side. “And where is the First Officer, eh?” she whispered. “Making himself scarce, which is only to be expected.” Chantel joined us.

“And we shall soon be saying goodbye,” she said blithely, smiling meaningfully at Miss Rundle.

“Some of us are going to miss each other.”

“Alas!” sighed Chantel.

“I am sure you and Mr. Crediton must be a little sad at parting.”

“And you too,” said Chantel.

“Miss Rundle,” I said, “is an observer of human nature.”

“Let’s hope she finds herself in company as rewarding as this which is now so sadly breaking up.” Miss Rundle looked startled and Chantel went on: “We must not forget that we are merely ‘ships that pass in the night.’ Finish it for me, Anna.”

“And speak to each other in passing;

Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness.”

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” said Chantel. “And so true. ‘Ships that pass in the night.’ And then … go on and on … never seeing each other again. It’s fascinating.”

Miss Rundle sniffed. She was not enjoying the conversation. She said that Mrs. Greenall was waiting for her in her cabin.

She left us standing there.

I said to Chantel: “The next port of call will be Sydney itself.”

“Yes, and then Coralle.”

“Chantel, how are you going to like it?”

“I’d have to be clairvoyant to answer that question.”

“I mean parting with Rex Crediton at Sydney. It’s no use your pretending. Yours is a special friendship.”

“Who’s pretending?”

“If you’re in love with him, if he’s in love with you, what’s to prevent your marrying?”

“You ask that question as though you know the answer.”

“I do,” I said. “Nothing. That’s unless he is so weak that he’s afraid of his mother.”

“Dear Anna,” she said, “I believe you are very fond of your undeserving friend. But don’t worry about her. She’ll be all right. She always has been. She always will be. Didn’t I tell you I never miss the boat.”

She was confident.

They must have an agreement of some sort, I thought.


* * *

Perhaps we were all growing reckless. I saw little of Chantel. It might have been that Monique wanted to give her as much time as possible with Rex before they parted. Perhaps she took a sly interest in their romance. They seemed to have struck up a close friendship with the Glennings. Or perhaps this was just to provide chaperones. In any case the four of them were often together.