The one gift I'd inherited wasn't good enough to be of any use--If my mother had only left me the whole of her voice, I'd have been an opera-singer.

But I don't think I could have stood the drudgery--and I should have hated the publicity of it all....

Joan, how did you ever manage to make yourself independent ?' 'By drudging,' said Mrs Gildea dryly.

'Besides, I was born differently.
And I was brought up with practical people.' 'Mr McKeith, for instance.

He told me about his having been what he called a "cattle new-chum" on your father's station.' 'He wasn't exactly a "new-chum." His father had owned a sheep-station up in the unsettled districts.