In the Land of the Long White Cloud

activities from the heir to a sheep farm. The cowboys in the penny novels would never have mixed with knights, guaranteed. But perhapsGerald Warden was exaggerating. No doubt the sheep baron wanted to depict his home and family in the best light. The reality would be wilder and more exciting! In any case, Gwyneira managed to forget her sheet music when the time finally came to pack her trousseau in chests and suitcases.

    Lucinda Greenwood took Helen’s announcement with astounding calm. George, who would be attending college after the summer anyway, no longer needed a tutor, and William…
    “As for William, perhaps I’ll look about for somewhat more indulgent help,” she said. “He is still such a child, and one has to take that into account.”
    Helen checked herself and forced herself to agree, already thinking about her new little charges on the
Dublin
. Lucinda Greenwood had generously allowed her to extend her Sunday outing to church to meet with the girls in Sunday school. As expected, they were frail, undernourished, and browbeaten. All of them wore clean, gray, oft-patched button-up dresses, but even the oldest, Dorothy, still showed no hint of a woman’s figure beneath her dress. The girl had just turned thirteen and had spent ten years of her short life in the almshouse with her mother. Early on, Dorothy’s mother had had a job, but the girl could no longer remember those days so long ago. She knew only that her mother had eventually gotten sick and then died. She’d been living in the orphanage ever since then. She was scared to death of the journey to New Zealand, but was nevertheless prepared to do anything she could to please her future masters. Dorothy had only first learned to read and write in the orphanage but was trying with all her might to make up for lost time. Helen silently decided to continue teaching her on the ship. She felt sympathy for the delicate, dark-haired girl, who would doubtless grow to be a beauty if she were properly fed and no longer forced to bow and scrape, back bent and cowering like a beaten dog before everyone. Daphne, the next oldest, appeared somewhat braver. She had managed to live alone on thestreet for a long time; that she hadn’t been caught stealing but rather found sick and exhausted under a bridge was surely thanks to luck and not innocence. She had been treated strictly in the orphanage. The headmistress seemed to have taken her flaming red hair for an unmistakable sign of a lust for life, even a hunger for life, and punished her for every wanton side-glance. Daphne was the only one of the six girls who had volunteered for the journey overseas. For Laurie and Mary, ten-year-old (at most) twins from Chelsea, that certainly was not the case. Neither was especially bright, though they were well behaved and somewhat skillful, when they could figure out what was being asked of them. Laurie and Mary believed every word the malicious little boys in the orphanage had told them about the dangers of the sea voyage, and they could hardly believe that Helen was making the journey without serious reservations. Elizabeth, on the other hand, a dreamy twelve-year-old with long, blonde hair, thought it romantic to set out on a journey to an unknown husband.
    “Oh, Miss Davenport, it’ll be like in the fairy tales!” she whispered. Elizabeth lisped slightly and was constantly teased for it, so she rarely spoke up. “A prince waiting for you! He must be pining away and dreaming of you every night.”
    Helen laughed and attempted to extricate herself from the grip of her youngest charge, Rosemary. Rosie was supposedly eleven years old, but Helen put the distraught child at no more than nine. Whoever thought this timid creature was ready to make her own way in the world was beyond comprehension. Until Helen arrived, Rosemary had clung to Dorothy. Now that a friendlier grown-up was present, she switched seamlessly to Helen. She was touched by the feel of Rosie’s tiny hand in her own, but knew she couldn’t encourage the girl’s clinginess; employers had already been found for the children in Christchurch, so she knew she mustn’t feed Rosie’s hope to remain with her after the journey.
    Besides, Helen’s own fate was just as uncertain. She still hadn’t heard a word from Howard O’Keefe.
    Regardless, Helen prepared a sort of trousseau for herself. She invested what little there was of her savings in two new dresses andunderwear and purchased some linens for