For the new house was of brick, the first brick house to be built
on Ballarat (and oh the joy! said Richard, of walls so thick that you
could not hear through them), had an extra-wide verandah which might be
curtained in for parties and dances, and a side-entrance for patients,
such as Mary had often sighed for.
As a result of the new grandeur, more and more flocked to his door. The
present promised to be a record year even in the annals of the Golden
City. The completion of the railway-line to Melbourne was the
outstanding event. Virtually halving the distance to the metropolis in
count of time, it brought a host of fresh people capitalists,
speculators, politicians--about the town, and money grew perceptibly
easier. Letters came more quickly, too; Melbourne newspapers could be
handled almost moist from the press. One no longer had the sense of
lying shut off from the world, behind the wall of a tedious coach
journey. And the merry Ballaratians, who had never feared or shrunk from
the discomforts of this journey, now travelled constantly up and down:
attending the Melbourne race-meetings; the Government House balls and
lawn-parties; bringing back the gossip of Melbourne, together with its
fashions in dress, music and social life.
Mary, in particular, profited by the change; for in one of those
"general posts" so frequently played by the colonial cabinet, John
Turnham had come out Minister of Railways; and she could have a "free
pass" for the asking.
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