Many times in his life he had seen a rainbow. The last had been on his arrival in Sydney. For some reason he felt absolutely wretched and dismal on that Saturday morning when the ship came into Sydney harbour. He had an unspeakable desire not to get out of the ship, not to go down on to the quay and into that town. The having to do it was a violation of himself. When he came on deck after breakfast and the ship had stopped, it was pouring with rain, the P. and O. wharf looked black and dismal, empty. It might almost have been an abandoned city. He walked round to the starboard side, to look towards the unimposing hillock of the city and the Circular Quay. Black, all black and unutterably dismal in the pouring rain, even the green grass of the Botanical Gardens, and the bits of battlement of the Conservatorium. Unspeakably forlorn. Yet over it all, spanning the harbour, the most magnificent great rainbow. His mood was so miserable he didn’t want to see it. But it was unavoidable. A huge, brilliant, supernatural rainbow, spanning all Sydney. He was thinking of this, and still watching the dark-green, yellow-reflecting sea, that was like a northern sea, a Whitby sea, and watching the far-off fume of a dark rainbow apparition, when Harriet heard somebody at the door. It was William James, who had an hour to wait for his train, and thought they wouldn’t mind if he looked in. They were pleased, and Harriet brought him a cup and plate. Thank goodness he, too, came in a certain stillness of spirit, saying very little, but being a quiet, grateful presence. When the tea was finished he and Somers sat back on the verandah out of the wind, and watched the yellow, cloudy evening sink. They hardly spoke, but lay lying back in the deck-chairs. “I was wondering,” said Somers, “whom Kangaroo depends on mostly for his following.” William James looked back at him, with quiet, steady eyes. “On the diggers--the returned soldiers chiefly: and the sailors.” “Of what class?” “Of any class. But there aren’t many rich ones. Mostly like me and Jack, not quite simple working men. A few doctors and architects and that sort.” “And do you think it means much to them?” Jaz shifted his thick body uneasily in his chair. “You never can tell,” he said. “That’s true,” said Somers. “I don’t really know how much Jack Callcott cares. I really can’t make out.” “He cares as much as about anything,” said Jaz. “Perhaps a bit more. It’s more exciting.” “Do you think it _is_ the excitement they care about chiefly?” “I should say so. You can die in Australia if you don’t get a bit of excitement.” There was silence for a minute or two. “In my opinion,” said Somers, “it has to go deeper than excitement.” Again Jaz shifted uneasily in his chair. “Oh, well--they don’t set much store on deepness over here. It’s easy come, easy go, as a rule. Yet they’re staunch chaps while the job lasts, you know. They are true to their mates, as a rule.”