From freezing night it turned to
scorching4 day as the sun climbed toward its zenith and the train racketed on and on and on, stopping occasionally in some tiny town full of bicycles and horse-drawn vehicles; cars were scarce out here, it seemed. Paddy opened both the windows all the way in spite of the
soot5 which
swirled6 in and settled on everything; it was so hot they were
gasping7, their heavy New Zealand winter clothing sticking and
itching8. It did not seem possible that anywhere outside of hell could be so hot in winter. Gillanbone came with the dying sun, a strange small collection of ramshackle wooden and
corrugated9 iron buildings along either side of one dusty wide street, treeless and tired. The melting sun had licked a golden paste over everything, and gave the town a transient
gilded10 dignity which faded even as they stood on the platform watching. It became once more a typical settlement on the very edge of the Back of Beyond, a last outpost in a
steadily11 diminishing rainfall belt; not far away
westward12 began two thousand miles of the Neverationever, the desert lands where it could not rain. A resplendent black car was
standing13 in the station yard, and striding unconcernedly toward them through the inches-deep dust came a priest. His long soutane made him seem a figure out of the past, as if he did not move on feet like ordinary men, but drifted dreamlike; the dust rose and billowed around him, red in the last of the sunset. "Hello, I'm Father de Bricassart," he said, holding out his hand to Paddy. "You have to be Mary's brother; you're the living image of her." He turned to Fee and lifted her limp hand to his lips, smiling in genuine
astonishment14; no one could spot a gentlewoman quicker than Father Ralph. "Why, you're beautiful!" he said, as if it were the most natural remark in the world for a priest to make, and then his eyes went
onward15 to the boys, standing together in a
huddle16. They rested for a moment with puzzled bewilderment on Frank, who had charge of the baby, and ticked off each boy as they got smaller and smaller. Behind them, all by herself, Meggie stood
gaping17 up at him with her mouth open, as if she were looking at God. Without seeming to notice how his fine serge robe wallowed in the dust, he stepped past the boys and
squatted18 down to hold Meggie between his hands, and they were firm, gentle, kind.
