Sophie had heard of the Warria homestead since she was a child, of its orange garden and great, cool rooms. It had loomed like the enchanted castle of a legend through all her youthful imaginings. And now, as she remembered what Mirry Flail had said, she was filled with delight and excitement at the thought of seeing it.
She wondered whether Arthur had asked his mother to invite her to the dance. She thought he must have; and with naïve conceit imagined happily that Arthur's mother must want to know her because she knew that Arthur liked her. And Arthur's sisters—it would be nice to know them and to talk to them. She went over and over in her mind the talks she would have with Polly and Nina, and perhaps Elizabeth Henty, some day.
A few weeks before the ball she had seen Arthur riding through the township with his sisters and a girl who was staying at Warria. He had not seen her, and Sophie was glad, because suddenly she had felt shy and confused at the thought of talking to him before a lot of people. Besides, they all looked so jolly, and were having such a good time, that she would not have known what to say to Arthur, or to his sisters, just then.
When she told Mrs. Woods and Martha M'Cready about the invitation, they smiled and teased her.
"Oh, that tells a tale!" they said.
Sophie laughed. She felt silly, and she was blushing, they said. But she was very happy at having been asked to the ball. For weeks before she found herself singing "Caro Nome" as she sat at work, went about the house, or with Potch after the goats in the late afternoon.
Arthur liked that song better than any other, and its melody had become mingled and interwoven with all her thoughts of him.
The twilight was deepening, on the evening a few days before the dance, when Bully Bryant and Roy O'Mara came up to Rouminof's hut, calling Sophie. She was washing milk tins and tea dishes, and went to the door singing to herself, a candle throwing a fluttering light before her.
"Your father sent us along for you, Sophie," Bully explained. "There's a bit of a celebration on at Newton's to-night, and the boys want you to sing for them."
Sophie turned from them, going into the house to put down her candle.