His marriage had not been a success. Mrs. Arthur Henty had spent most of her time in Sydney; she was rarely seen on the Ridge now. So women of the Ridge, who had known Arthur Henty, went over all they knew of him until that night at the race ball when he and Sophie had met again. And then his end in the tank paddock brought them back to exclamations of dismay and grief at the mystery of it all.
As she left the cemetery, Sophie began to sing, listlessly, dreamily at first. No one had heard her sing since her return to the Ridge. But her voice flew out over the plains, through the wide, clear air now, with the pure melody it had when she was a girl:
"Caro nome che il mio cor festi primo palpitar,
Le delizie dell' amor mi dei sempre rammentar!
Col pensier il mio desir a te sempre volerà,
E fin l'ultimo sospir, caro nome, tuo sarà!"
Ella Bryant, driving home beside Bully, knew Sophie was singing as she had sung to Arthur Henty years before, when they were coming home from the tank paddock together. She wondered why Sophie was riding the horse Arthur had brought for her; why she had ridden him to the funeral; and why she was singing that song.
Sophie sang on:
"Col pensier il mio desir a te sempre volerà,
E fin l'ultimo sospir, caro nome, tuo sarà!"
Looking back, people saw Potch walking beside her as Joseph walked beside Mary when they went down to Nazareth.
"It's hard on Potch," somebody said.
"Yes," it was agreed; "it's hard on Potch."
The buggies, carts, sulkies, and horsemen moving in opposite directions on the long, curving road over the plains grew dim in the distance.