“That plaace is lik an oven,” she said to the Anzac corporal who followed her out.... “No, thank you. I’ll go home wud Polly.”
Polly was a little annoyed that Ivy should have broken up the party so soon; but it certainly was very hot—both the girls’ faces were spotted with sweat and their gowns were sticking to their shoulders. Besides, it would be as well not to get too thick with this Australian chap now Bill Putland was writing so regularly.... Miss Sinden and Miss Beatup dismissed their escort, and, after the proper number of “Good-by-ees,” shouted across longer and longer darkness-muffled distances, they trudged off homewards on the North Trade.
When Ivy reached the farm, she was told that Jerry Sumption had called about eight o’clock—on his way from the station, without even going first to leave his kit-bag at the Horselunges—and that Mrs. Beatup had had an unaccountable to-do to git shut of him.
7
Having made up her mind that a meeting was inevitable, Ivy made no more efforts to avoid one. By her absence on his first visit she had clearly shown Jerry how matters stood, and if he was fool enough to come again....
He was, of course. Ivy, unromantically on her knees at her usual business of scrubbing the kitchen boards, felt no annoyance at being so discovered, made no hasty grabs at her rolled-up sleeves, or at the loosening knob of her hair. She would not have done so for a more favoured lover, for none of her courtships had been of the kind that encourages neatness and daintiness in a woman, that leads to curlings and powderings. She knew that men liked her for her youth and health and bigness, for her cheeriness and strength, and as all these things were natural to her she had no need to trouble herself with fakes.
“Hullo, Jerry,” she said, without looking up, and sending a swirl of soapy water round his boots.
“Hullo, Ivy. Why weren’t you in when I came last night?”
“Because I’d gone into Senlac wud Polly Sinden, as your father ud have told you, if you’d done wot you should ought and gone to him fust.”
“You’d no call to go into Senlac—not on the first night of my leave.”