Explore "Gathered In" by Catherine Helen Spence on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When Kenneth returned to the head station the master of Tingalpa was sitting clothed and in his right mind, not in the smoking-room, which was undergoing a purification, but in the room meant to be the library. The room was fitted up with shelves which were mostly empty, but some had newspapers on them, while on others were laid guns, pistols, seeds, specimens from quartz reefs, of wool in great variety, and a few stuffed birds and reptiles.
Mr. Oswald had not altogether recovered from the effects of his debauch; his eyes were still dull, and his face of an unhealthy pallor, and his hands scarcely so steady as they were at his best; but there was so very great an improvement that Kenneth's hopes rose. He was a little above the middle height and strongly made; his face lighted up at the sight of his nephew, and he threw down the back numbers of the Argus which had been unopened during his seclusion, and shook hands heartily with Kenneth, altogether ignoring the fact of his having seen him before. Jim was standing with his back to his cousin, taking out a gun from one of the shelves, which he wanted to get Mick to clean for him, and looking for supplies of powder and shot for a day's sport. Mrs. Oswald was sitting doing nothing, only occasionally looking out of the window at the tame magpie which was anxious to get in.