Explore "The Caves of Shend" by David Hennessey on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Storm-Cliff at the time of our story was stated in the directory to be eight and a half miles from Sydney; but as the name of the suburb has since been changed to a more pretentious one, the reader may be saved the trouble of looking for it there, or upon the map. At the time we write of, trams and suburban railway lines were in their infancy; the boom times were only looming upon the horizon; and, so far, the rural surroundings of Sydney and its suburbs were quiet and undisturbed. A coach ran daily past Storm-Cliff to a small township a few miles farther along the coast, carrying mails and any passengers who could be picked up; but it was an out-of-the-way district, and most people along the road kept their own conveyances.
On the advice of her solicitor, Beatrice had hired a carriage and pair of horses, by the week, at a Pitt Street livery-stable, so on reaching the town hall she alighted and told William to take the carriage round to the stables, put the horses up, and wait upon her at Bluntly, Blackham & Dorset's about noon. The drive had occupied an hour, and the town-hall clock chimed the half-hour after eleven as she turned down King Street.