At six o’clock the polling stations across the colony closed to loud cheers, and in the city the people began to gather in great numbers outside the offices of the Herald. The first results came in at six thirty, and as each new telegram arrived an employee of the newspaper hurried out and posted Yes or No on a board outside and a cheer went up, no matter the outcome; the people just wished to cheer, they did not discriminate. And it was no certain thing as, for a time, the No’s came in thick and fast only a little behind the Yes’s. But by eight o’clock it began to appear that a win in favour of the Federation was likely. At ten o’clock the result was all but confirmed and a win declared, and the cheering in the streets was long and hearty, after which the crowd dispersed, for tomorrow was another day.

Eleanor got home long before her husband for her journey was shorter than his. But it was dark as her cab drew up outside the house and it took her a moment or two to disengage herself from its interior and negotiate the door and the step. And then she must find some coins for the fare and all the while balance this bundle that she held.

The cab dispatched with, she walked up to the front door and the baby in her arms made no sound and it was Eleanor herself who cried a little as she went into the house.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: FEDERATION

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

FEDERATION

It had been a mild winter after all, though it had not seemed so at the time—and, really, how cold could it get, in Sydney?—and then a whole month early, in the second week of October, the jacarandas exploded into bloom across the city, and if one was fortunate enough to be alive on such a day it was impossible not to feel the joy of it. When a southerly struck, late one afternoon towards the end of the month, the whole lot was gone in a moment, blown off the trees for another year and, for a few glorious days, the streets of the city were paved in mauve blossom in the same way that, as children, we had believed the streets of London to be paved with gold, though we had learned as we had got older, that this was not true.