“Now, now, I insist,” persisted Sir James.

Poor old Gaddy was red in the face. Derek was pretending not to hear.

I shook my head and looked modest, which further incited Sir James. “Can you give me one good reason why you should not drink my wine?”

“Yes. If you came to see Pa and Ma and me we wouldn’t have any wine because we could not afford it. Pa tried to do good for his fellows and lost his money. We could offer you nothing better than tea and coffee and if you did not like them we would be sorry but we would not pester you to drink them against your wish.”

Sir James patted me on the hand and said, “Plucky little filly. If you were entered at Randwick you would run away from the field. I’ll drink your health out of a damned feeding bottle. What I like in women or horses is mettle.”

Later in the drawing-room he sat beside me and said that while Lady Hobnob was away in Melbourne he would give a dinner specially for me with no damned married women present, so that I could have the place of honour. He smelt and looked as though he had drunk my share of the wine in addition to his own. Ill-bred old toad!

Why should one be plagued to drink alcohol but allowed to refuse coffee or tea without any buzz?

I did not look forward to Sir Jimmy’s company when the guests left but he was in bed snoring ten minutes after the last goodnight. Lady Hobnob said they were old campaigners and had such a heavy social round that they did their best to curtail late hours.

Breakfast was brought to my bed by a maid, but I dressed before eating. It seemed frowsy to eat in bed as if I were ill. The maid later took me to her ladyship’s room where she was sitting up with the remains of a meal and many letters and papers scattered on her bed. This was an off day, by a miracle, and she was giving it to me because she had been moved by my book. She said that once she too had been a little girl in the bush who had thought that the great world would be wonderful.

“And now,” I glowed, “You have met all the great people and have seen Queen Victoria as well as King Edward and Queen Alexandra.”

She had been home to both Jubilees as a Government guest and to the Coronation, and told me of the wonders of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, but wound up “It has been a long weary way, my dear, from the old bush track with the mopokes calling and the moon coming up over the back paddock, and you brought me home to my youth.”

I stayed to lunch with her alone. I liked her, though she suggested untidiness. She was a bit gone about the belt and straggly around the hem, and not above grubbiness in the lace at wrists and neck, and her hat was dowdy.