It was no use reminding Cougaba that this was not so. It mattered not that she had admitted in a moment of stress that Luke Carter was Cougabel's father and we knew that Cougabel's child had not been conceived on the Night of the Masks. Cougaba, like all her race, accepted as truth what she wanted to.

However, I soothed her and, as she thought that Susannah was going away soon, she allowed herself to be comforted.

It was a week before the ship was due to arrive and I was ready to leave.

We were at dinner when Susannah said: "I've decided not to go to Sydney. I'm not really ready to leave the island yet, and let's face it, when I leave I'll have to go home, and when should I get a chance to come and see you all again?"

There was silence. Philip looked completely dismayed.

I said: "Laura would have liked you to be at her wedding. I was looking forward to her seeing us together."

"Fringes and all," cried Susannah flippantly. "No. I've made up my mind. You won't turn me out, will you?" She was looking pleadingly at our father and then she turned and her gaze lingered on Anabel.

"Of course you must stay as long as you want to," said my father.

"I thought the novelty had worn a little thin by now," added Anabel.

"There you are mistaken. The place is so fascinating. Think of all you are doing. When that hospital project really gets under way it will be magnificent. I should love to see it. But I dare say it will take years and years to turn it into a working concern. Perhaps I'll come back someday and see you all. But just yet, I don't feel ready to go. Do you mind, Suewellyn?"

"I was looking forward to introducing you to Laura. She would have enjoyed meeting you. But I understand, of course."

"You'll be coming back in two months. I shall have to go then, but we'll have a lovely day together before I leave."

"You seem to like the primitive life," said Anabel coldly.

"There are certain things which keep me here." Her eyes swept round the table and rested on Philip.

But he is going with me, I thought, and I wondered how Susannah would like the island without Philip to enslave and me to laugh at.

I was very soon to get an answer to that.

I had come out of the house and was walking down to the shore to sit in my favorite spot under a palm tree where I would read one of the books which had come on the last ship. Philip was beside me.

"I want to talk to you, Suewellyn."

"Yes. What about?"

"Shall we sit down? Under this tree?" He was obviously seeking for the right words. At length he said: "I've been thinking a lot about this... ."

"About what?"

"Laura's wedding."

"You do need a lot of prompting, Philip. What about Laura's wedding?"

"Well, there's a certain amount of fever on the island... ."

"There always is."

"It... it's rather too much for your father to cope with."

"He coped adequately before you came."

"I think he needs me here."

"Oh," I said slowly, "you're telling me that you don't want to come to Laura's wedding."

"Not don't want to, Suewellyn."

"Well, just that you prefer to stay here."

"It's not a matter of preferring. It's just that I feel I ought... ."

I nodded. I looked out over the sea so calmly beautiful, opalescent today, and the water so clear that one could see the sand beneath it.

I wanted to fling myself down on the sand and weep. I did not know until that moment how much I wanted to stay here with my family around me, my deeply loved mother, my revered father ... and Philip. I had planned so far ahead. I had seen the hospital working full strength, doing all that I knew it was capable of. I had seen the island a prosperous community and Philip and me bringing up our children here.

I heard myself say: "You feel that ... that ..."

"I do," he said earnestly. "I could not happily leave your father here alone ... now... ."

I wanted to shout at him: "You mean you don't want to leave Susannah."

So it was all over. All this time I had been telling myself that she would go away and in time we should forget that she ever came.

Then I thought: Poor Philip. She will never marry you. She is going to marry Esmond ... for the castle.

The Grumbling Giant

So I went alone to Sydney. One of Laura's brothers came to meet the boat and take me out to the property. The luggage would come the next day by wagon.

I had to explain to Alan, the brother, that Philip had decided there was too much to do on the island for him to come away.

Alan grimaced. "Laura will take a grim view of that, I can tell you," he said.

There was a warm welcome for me at the property. Laura was radiant. She was disappointed not to see Philip but after the initial annoyance she quickly recovered her spirits, for she was too happy to be separated from her absolute bliss for long.

I liked her husband-to-be. They were going up to Queensland where he had inherited a property and they planned to leave immediately after the wedding.

I was fitted for my bridesmaid's dress and she commented that my new hair style was very smart. "It changes you, Suewellyn," she told me. "You've lost that innocent look you had. You look like a woman of the world."

"Perhaps I'm becoming one."

She came to my room as she used to when we were schoolgirls and lay on the floor kicking up her heels and resting her chin in her cupped hands while she studied me sitting in the armchair.

"Doesn't this take you back?" she said. "And now ... just think, I'm getting married. I stole a march on you."

"You are a year older."

"Yes, that could account for it. The family is disappointed, Suewellyn."

"You mean about Philip's not coming."

"Yes, and I think they were rather hoping ... you know how families are. They have one wedding in the family and they immediately want another. Father says they are catching. In fact, I believe Alan will be the next. But they are thinking of Philip. They are very fond of you, Suewellyn."

"They have always been so nice to me. It meant a lot when I came here on those short holidays. As I couldn't get to the island in time it would have meant staying at school."

"They loved your coming. They thought you were so good for me. I do think it was mean of Philip. Is there so much to do?"

I hesitated.

"Out with it," she said. "What's wrong? You can't fool me. What has gone wrong between you two?"

"There's nothing... ."

"There is something. Don't you like each other any more?"

"I don't think Philip ever liked me enough to want to marry me."

"He did. He was falling in love with you. We all knew it. My mother used to say it was only a matter of time. They're so disappointed. They wanted an announcement at my wedding."

"No. It wasn't like that at all." She was looking at me steadily and I burst out: "My half sister came to see us on the island. He was, as you might say, swept off his feet by her."

"Oh, is he going to marry her?'

"Oh no. She is going to marry someone else."

"What a mess! And what a fool Philip is!"

"These things happen. You can't arrange other people's lives."

"Do you mind? ..."

"Oh, I don't think it was ever serious between Philip and me. I suppose I wasn't quite grown up. My parents thought it would be ideal because then I should stay on the island and Philip would be working there with my father. It was all too neat really."

"What a pity! It's spoiled things in a way."

"It can't spoil things for you. Everything is perfect. You're going to be blissfully happy, Laura."

"Yes, I am. You'll come and stay with us in Queensland, won't you?"

"I might consider it ... if I were asked."

"You're asked here and now."

"All right then, I'll consider."

Then we talked about the wedding preparations and the honeymoon and I let her think that Philip had not really been very important to me.

So Laura was married and I was a bridesmaid and the day after the wedding she and her husband left for their honeymoon. I remained at the property until the ship was due to sail for the island. They tried to persuade me to stay right until the last day but I wanted to do some shopping in Sydney, so I said. The truth was that I wanted to get away. There was too much there to remind me of those happy holidays with Philip and Laura. It occurred to me that I would never visit the property again. I did not want to look very far into the future. I wondered what it would be like on the island when Susannah was gone. Philip might remain unless he made some excuse to follow her to England, which he might well do. I did not want to think of it.

It was quite an adventure staying at the hotel alone, although the proprietors knew me, for once or twice I had stayed there with the Halmers when they came to see me off on the ship. There were quite a number of people staying in the hotel. They were mostly graziers from the outback, who sat about in the big lounge talking wool prices and doing business with each other. I stayed in my rooms and had my meals there. I should only be in Sydney for two days. It seemed a long time, though, and I realized it was the first time in my life that I had really been alone.

I longed to be back on the island, yet I wondered what I should find there. It would not be the paradise it had been on other return journeys in the past. Philip would have learned that Susannah did not regard him with any seriousness. Poor Philip!