Page:Coo-ee - tales of Australian life by Australian ladies.djvu/132

 sort of sigh. I wonder how she learnt the trick — it was most effective.

Yes, there are conventions here. Think ! The country has been getting civilised now for more than a hundred years. Of course, conventions have had time to find a firm foothold, and the soil suits them, as you will soon know. Australian conventionalism, however, differs from English. It is not so con- sistent ; it is stiffer, to look at, in some ways, and wants careful manipulation. But if one once gets the knack of that, it is quite an elastic, compressible thing, and gives to the touch like anything. One only needs courage to be charming. We all know that, all over the world. But charm judiciously applied can do anything in Australia. Ah, it is funny, this Australian rule of conduct. Ah, very,' she repeated, with a soft laugh that went well with the veiled mockery in her eyes. ' They think it is unbending, so straight, that the English article is nothing to it. But, dear Mrs. Vallings, it is really only rigid in spots, so to speak ; and in the country, when it is dull, and nothing " on," before this wild, short, wonderful season of theirs gallops in, the conventions grow quite complaisant, and will put up with quite strange things, — so long, that is, as they are of foreign manufacture, and bring a new sensation ; no home- grown vagary is tolerated. Now in England that never is. The duller the place and the people, the straighter and stiffer the sense of " conduct " grows. It spreads all over some people, I think, like a thin coat