“I can quite understand the ‘damn everything’ part of it,” laughed Jaz. “You won’t do it, though.”
“I never was so tempted in my life. Talk about Eve tempting man to a fall: Australia tempts me. Retro me—”
Jaz was silent for a few moments.
“You’d repent it, though,” he said quietly.
“I’ll probably repent whatever I do,” replied Somers, “so what’s the odds. I’ll probably repent bitterly going to America, going back to the world: when I want Australia. I want Australia as a man wants a woman. I fairly tremble with wanting it.”
“Australia?”
“Yes.”
Jaz looked at Somers with his curious, light-grey eyes.
“Then why not stop?” he said seductively.
“Not now. Not now. Some cussedness inside me. I don’t want to give in, you see. Not yet. I don’t want to give in to the place. It’s too strong. It would lure me quite away from myself. It would be too easy. It’s too tempting. It’s too big a stride, Jaz.”