Colin might do as he liked about them.

She felt reckless and quite hard.
Only one among those personal possessions moved her to despairing tears.

It was a shrivelled section of bark chopped from a gum tree, warped almost into a tube.
She placed this carefully in the deepest drawer of her wardrobe.

Would Colin ever find it there--and would he understand?
All the time, through these preparations, strangely enough she did not think of any possible future in connection with Willoughby Maule.

The events of the past few days seemed to have driven him outside her immediate horizon.
When she came out in the morning dressed for her journey, she found her husband in the veranda waiting to strap up and carry out her baggage.
Scarcely a word passed between them; they did not even breakfast together.