'You know I asked to be sent in with you--it was rather bold of me, wasn't it?
But if I had known how VERY tall you are!' Mr McKeith lowered his arm, stooping over her, and Mrs Gildea heard him say in a voice that sounded different somehow from his ordinary deep drawl: 'I wonder why I was chosen for this honour ?' And Bridget's reply: 'I'd been told that you were an explorer--that you're a kind of Bush Cecil Rhodes--I don't know Mr Cecil Rhodes, but I have an adoration for him--I wanted to talk to a real Bushman--I always felt that I should like Australian Bushmen from Joan Gildea's description of them....

And you....' The rest was lost, as the groups converged and the long line of couples went forward..