Chapter 18

Logan had been thrilled. I asked him to come to the Museum before lunch. Then I settled down with Praed for a bit. It was actually better than I had expected.

Lady Bridget was an Irish lady, nearing 30, with little money. She travels from Brisbane to the Never-Never where she meets a bushman, Colin. They have an affair and get married. That's Book 1, which is where I stopped, hungry for dinner. I realized that Praed had divided the novel into three books, each from a different point of view. The first was that of Mrs. Gildea, a matron of Leichardt's Town. The next was from that of Lady Bridget.

I went off to hunt up dinner.

I was brought up short, later, in my reading of Book II at a passage where Bridget tells Colin that:

"I'm not beautiful. I don't come up in the least to the artist's standard. My measurements are wrong. I'm too small."

To which Colin responds: "That's rot."

Only a few weeks ago Winnie had told me that she was too small. I didn't think she was "beautiful," but I certainly thought she was nice-looking. Not a film star. But who'd want to be with a film star? I was still musing when I finished the chapter and went to bed.

Nothing looked different when I got to Entomology in the morning. I just went back to reading labels. Around ten Dr. Cassis arrived and asked me into his office.

"How'd it go at BEES?"

I told him that Professor Adam was to be my supervisor of study and that I'd be going up to the far north with him for a weekend.

"He's a fine man and a good scholar. Interested in the bigger picture. What about classes?"

"I've registered for 'Management of Biodiversity' – whatever that means."

"You'll have to tell me when you find out." He laughed. "Now, does BEES still have the nonsense about number of course credits and number of years?"

"Yes."

"And you're seeing Adam on Thursday?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Here's what we're going to do. I'll write you a note. You have him sign it on Thursday and then drop it in the BEES office. Make certain you get two copies after he signs. One's for me, t'other's for your records."

He took a piece of Museum letterhead from a drawer and wrote a bit. Signed it, folded it, fished out a used envelope, and handed it to me. "Read it, fold it nice and put it in the envelope and give it to Adam."

"Yes sir." I read it.

Gordon Hollister has been working with me at the Australian Museum four days a week on arthropod taxonomy and should receive double 'special study' credit for his work.

"Thank you, sir."

"Rules and regulations. Bourgeois formalists! Now, about your friend..."

"Logan, sir. He'll be here in an hour or so."

"Good, good. No go outside and pretend you're working." He laughed again.

Logan turned up right at 1100. I showed him the "inner sanctum" and knocked.

"Yes?"

"Logan's here, sir."

"Well throw him in and I'll see if he's a keeper!"

I winked at Logan and opened the door. Then I went back to the mango seed weevil (Sternochetus mangiferae) in a case. It was a female, collected on Thursday Island. At least it was relevant to what Professor Adam wanted me to do. Though I had collected a number of beetles, I'd never paid much attention to the Coleoptera. I guess I'd learn. If I recalled correctly, they made up about 40% of the insect species and were nearly as wide-spread as ants.