Explore "The Caves of Shend" by David Hennessey on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
It seemed to Beatrice after this as though a new element had come into her life, antagonistic to Australia. Not that she encouraged it; but Lady Stirling's words had impressed her far more than she willingly acknowledged, even to herself. Her dreams were increasingly unpleasant, and she felt that, as indicating her state of mind, this was not a good sign. She had read somewhere that people's dreams are the wandering visions of their subconscious thought--that what people are, they dream. Her dreams were now almost always associated with 'The Towers,' the caves, or the padlocked book. Isaac Shend, her uncles, Septimus Dorset, Dr Strong, and Grace posed largely in them; but never in a way that was pleasing to the mind. She noted with pleasure, however, that she never dreamed of Donald in these distressful dreams.
She would frequently awaken with a start, and then remember with intense relief that 'The Towers' were burnt down, and Isaac Shend and a number of other people long since dead. It is not surprising that her short but tragic experience of colonial life became more and more distasteful to her.