Page 36 - An Australian Lassie

CHAPTER IX

DOROTHEA'S FRTENDS

Alma Montague, a wealthy doctor's daughter; Elsie and Minnie Stevenson, daughters of a Queensland
squatter; and Nellie Harden, only child of a Supreme Court Judge, were Dorothea Bruce's "intimate" friends.
Mona Parbury was her only "bosom" friend. Thus she defined them herself when speaking of them to
members of her family and to the girls themselves, who were one and all eager to stand a "bosom" friend to
pretty Thea Bruce as they called her.

The difference between an "intimate" friend and a "bosom" friend is too subtle to be described, but
school-girls all the world over, and those who have left school days just behind them, will know and
understand.

Mona Parbury was one week older than Dorothea and one inch (they measured upon the verandah wall) taller.
Her waist was two sizes larger; her boots and gloves were three. Tn every way she was cast in a different
mould from Dorothea. She was a heavily built girl, who looked at sixteen as though her teens were a year or
two behind her. Her features were pronounced--high cheek-bones, square chin, high forehead; her hair was
black and straight and plentiful, and she wore it in a heavy plait down her back. Her eyes were brown, clear,
faithful, good eyes, and her mouth was distinctly large and ill-shaped.

Such was Mona in the days when Dorothea loved her--in the days when Dorothea told her all her hopes, and
dreams, and often very foolish thoughts; when she made her the heroine of her stories; and wrote little poems
to her as--"her love"--and little loving letters if the cruel fate which sometimes hovers over such friendships
separated them for half a day.

We have seen Dorothea before. She was small and fairy-like; slender-waisted and light in movement. Her hair
was golden and curly, and was usually worn quite loose about her shoulders; her eyes were blue and sunshiny
and lashed by dark curling lashes; her mouth was small and red, and her complexion delicate pink and white.
All of her "intimate" friends gave her the frankest admiration--they all loved her, and they were all eager to
stand first with her.

But it was Mona who loved her the most. Mona who kept and treasured every one of the little "private" notes
sent to her by Dot. She worked out all her most troublesome sums, brushed and curled her hair; bore many of
her punishments; brought her numberless fal-lals (keepsakes she called them); wore a lock of her golden hair
in a locket around her neck, and told her all of her secrets--she had as many as ten a week sometimes.

Miss Weir, the "principal" of the school, had, many years ago, given to Dorothea's mother much the same sort
of love as Mona Parbury now gave to Dorothea. And it was owing to this old love that Dorothea was now
admitted on very low terms to the most fashionable school in Sydney.

No one among all the pupils (there were fifteen) knew anything about poverty--no one but Dorothea. As she
once said in a burst of anguish to her mother--

"They are all rich, every one of them. They live in beautiful houses and have parlourmaids and housemaids
and nursemaids, and kitchenmaids and cooks and carriages, and as much money to spend as we have to live
on, T believe."

Tt was very rarely, though, that any of her troubles ruffled her calm serenity. Dorothea was usually as placid as
the placidest baby. She longed to be rich, and to have pretty things to wear and a handsome house to live in,
but she never talked of her poverty. Tnstead she draped its cloven foot gracefully, and turned her back on
it--and imagined she was rich--from Monday till Friday.