Bliss | Page 6

sprang into bed, leaned over her and blew out the candle. "Good
night, Mr. Business Man," said she, and she took hold of his head by
the ears and gave him a quick kiss. Her faint far-away voice seemed to
come from a deep well.
"Good night, darling." He slipped his arm under her neck and drew her
to him.
"Yes, clasp me," said the faint voice from the deep well.
Ê
Pat the handy-man sprawled in his little room behind the kitchen. His
sponge-bag, coat and trousers hung from the door-peg like a hanged
man. From the edge of the blanket his twisted toes protruded, and on
the floor beside him there was an empty cane bird-cage. He looked like
a comic picture.
"Honk, honk," came from the servant girl. She had adenoids.
Last to go to bed was the grandmother.
"What. Not asleep yet?"
"No, I'm waiting for you," said Kezia. The old woman sighed and lay
down beside her. Kezia thrust her head under her grandmother's arm
and gave a little squeak. But the old woman only pressed her faintly,
and sighed again, took out her teeth, and put them in a glass of water
beside her on the floor.
In the garden some tiny owls, perched on the branches of a lace-bark
tree, called: "More pork; more pork." And far away in the bush there
sounded a harsh rapid chatter: "Ha-ha-ha ... Ha-ha-ha."

5
Dawn came sharp and chill with red clouds on a faint green sky and
drops of water on every leaf and blade. A breeze blew over the garden,
dropping dew and dropping petals, shivered over the drenched
paddocks, and was lost in the sombre bush. In the sky some tiny stars
floated for a moment and then they were gone--they were dissolved like
bubbles. And plain to be heard in the early quiet was the sound of the
creek in the paddock running over the brown stones, running in and out
of the sandy hollows, hiding under clumps of dark berry bushes,
spilling into a swamp of yellow water flowers and cresses.
And then at the first beam of sun the birds began. Big cheeky birds,
starlings and mynahs, whistled on the lawns, the little birds, the
goldfinches and linnets and fan-tails, flicked from bough to bough. A
lovely kingfisher perched on the paddock fence preening his rich
beauty, and a tui sang his three notes and laughed and sang them again.
"How loud the birds are," said Linda in her dream. She was walking
with her father through a green paddock sprinkled with daisies.
Suddenly he bent down and parted the grasses and showed her a tiny
ball of fluff just at her feet. "Oh, Papa, the darling." She made a cup of
her hands and caught the tiny bird and stroked its head with her finger.
It was quite tame. But a funny thing happened. As she stroked it began
to swell, it ruffled and pouched, it grew bigger and bigger and its round
eyes seemed to smile knowingly at her. Now her arms were hardly
wide enough to hold it and she dropped it into her apron. It had become
a baby with a big naked head and a gaping bird-mouth, opening and
shutting. Her father broke into a loud clattering laugh and she woke to
see Burnell standing by the windows rattling the Venetian blind up to
the very top.
"Hullo," he said. "Didn't wake you, did I? Nothing much wrong with
the weather this morning."
He was enormously pleased. Weather like this set a final seal on his
bargain. He felt, somehow, that he had bought the lovely day, too--got
it chucked in dirt cheap with the house and ground. He dashed off to

his bath and Linda turned over and raised herself on one elbow to see
the room by daylight. All the furniture had found a place--all the old
paraphernalia, as she expressed it. Even the photographs were on the
mantelpiece and the medicine bottles on the shelf above the washstand.
Her clothes lay across a chair--her outdoor things, a purple cape and a
round hat with a plume in it. Looking at them she wished that she was
going away from this house, too. And she saw herself driving away
from them all in a little buggy, driving away from everybody and not
even waving.
Back came Stanley girt with a towel, glowing and slapping his thighs.
He pitched the wet towel on top of her hat and cape, and standing firm
in the exact centre of a square of sunlight he began to do his exercises.
Deep breathing, bending and squatting like a frog and shooting out his
legs. He was so delighted with his firm, obedient body that he hit
himself on the chest