The etiquette of Kashima is much the same as that of a desert island. When a
stranger is cast away there, all hands go down to the shore to make him
welcome. Kashima assembled at the masonry platform close to the Narkarra Road,
and spread tea for the Vansuythens. That ceremony was reckoned a formal call,
and made them free of the Station, its rights and privileges. When the
Vansuythens were settled down, they gave a tiny housewarming to all Kashima;
and that made Kashima free of their house, according to the immemorial usage
of the Station.
Then the Rains came, when no one could go into camp, and the Narkarra Road was
washed away by the Kasun River, and in the cup-like pastures of Kashima the
cattle waded knee-deep. The clouds dropped down from the Dosehri hills and
covered everything.
At the end of the Rains, Boulte's manner toward his wife changed and became
demonstratively affectionate. They had been married twelve years, and the
change startled Mrs. Boulte, who hated her husband with the hate of a woman
who has met with nothing but kindness from her mate, and, in the teeth of this
kindness, had done him a great wrong. Moreover, she had her own trouble to
fight with--her watch to keep over her own property, Kurrell.
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