Thought that it was off, all that?

OLIVE: Off all what?

ROO: Your mother gettin’ the telephone?

OLIVE: Mister Bromige gave her the name of someone in the right department. S’posed to have a bit of pull. Maurie someone.

ROO: [frowning] She’ll get her fingers burnt if she’s not careful. All that under-the-counter stuff.

OLIVE: Kittens. On the way out, all that. Now the war is over—oh, so great to say that. [Happily tucking the handbag under her arm, and opening the compact] No more listenin’ to the news each day, and people bein’ so upset—Nancy was the one. [A last minute scrutiny of her make-up] Always seein’ Barney wounded on a beach, or half dead in the jungle somewhere. Why she started goin’ out with Yanks, I think. Take her mind off— [Returning the compact to her bag with a brisk satisfaction] Anyway, whole thing’s over now. And you’ve come through with flying colours.

ROO: Not the way your mother sees it. Five years’ service, and I end up a private.

OLIVE: [laughing] Oh, but you know what Mum is on about? It’s coz I said when you joined up, you’d be an officer overnight. They’d take one look at you, a ganger who had run his team up North, and you would be a captain or a major straight off. Difficulty with that, of course, was Barney. Nobody’d ever make an officer of him, and you get a promotion—

ROO dismisses this with an uneasy gesture, and moves to pull on his overcoat.

Well, sort of thing that happens, isn’t it? Mates join up together, thinkin’ they can keep an eye on one another, do their fighting side by side, and then the army separates them. One goes on, other gets left behind, and pretty soon they’re out of touch, and it’s a different war for both of them—

ROO flaps his overcoat irritably, and she humours his impatience.

Oh, knew you’d never let that happen, you and Barney. Why I say that you’ve come through with flyin’ colours. Didn’t bother about being an officer, doesn’t matter. What you’ve done is kept yourself up to the mark as what you are.

She collects his slouch hat from the top of the piano.

Smartest looking private in the Second AIF.

ROO: [dourly] Yeh, well—

He ducks his head to enable her to put the hat on his head and slip the strap under his chin.

—more to it than the look of the uniform.

OLIVE: Even so, one of the things that counts.

She kisses his cheek.

Only got to look at Barney. Way he gets around—

She moves to collect the cup and saucer left by Nancy.

Nancy says that walking down the street with Barney is like bein’ seen out with a khaki bundle—