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off?’
    â€˜Yes, when we boarded the ship for England. They said that if we wore them during the journey they’d slow us down too much. The weight again.’
    â€˜They did?’ said Eleanor, fascinated by this young man who looked so like Ned but who was yet utterly unlike him when he teased her. On closer inspection he looked very much more severe than Ned, but there was a gentleness in his manner to her which her wild brother had never possessed.
    â€˜Yes. Sorry to disappoint you by not having ’em on.’
    â€˜I’m not disappointed,’ said Eleanor truthfully.
    â€˜I can see that. The Patriarch says—’
    â€˜The Patriarch?’ Eleanor was fascinated all over again.
    â€˜M’father. We call him the Patriarch occasionally—he does come on rather patriarchal at times. He also says that they slow you down when you’re working. So they took them off him soon after he arrived in New South Wales. More trouble than they were worth, he said.’
    â€˜Do stop,’ said Eleanor faintly, trying not to laugh. Great-Aunt Almeria insisted that young ladies never laughed. Lord Chesterfield wouldn’t have liked it, she said. ‘You’re not a bit like Ned now that I’ve got to know you.’
    â€˜No, I’m not,’ agreed Alan cheerfully.
    â€˜But you do look very like him.’
    â€˜Yes—but it was a naughty trick to play on you—and so I shall tell Ned.’
    â€˜Well, I wouldn’t have said all that to you about chains if I hadn’t thought you were Ned.’
    He agreed with her, head on one side judiciously, adding, ‘Not to my face, perhaps, but afterwards.’
    â€˜Yes, no. Oh, dear.’ She laughed out loud this time, but was saved further embarrassment by the arrival of a grinning Ned.
    â€˜I see you’ve found one another,’ he offered carelessly.
    â€˜Too bad of you, Ned,’ Eleanor began.
    â€˜Miss Hatton found me,’ said Alan. ‘I didn’t do any finding. Our resemblance confused her somewhat.’
    Ned’s grin was wider than ever. ‘Thought it might. Bit of a shock was it, Nell?’
    â€˜My name is Eleanor,’ she said repressively. ‘You are quite disgraceful, Ned. I behaved very badly as a consequence of your silly trick and Mr—?’ She looked at Alan.
    â€˜Dilhorne, Alan Dilhorne,’ he told her. ‘But then I behaved badly, too. I was a dreadful tease, I fear.’
    â€˜Indeed you were,’ she agreed, captivated by his charm. No, he was not really very like Ned, despite the resemblance.
    â€˜So, we are quits,’ he said to Eleanor, ignoring the grinning Ned, who was beginning to annoy him.
    â€˜Quits,’ she agreed, and put out her hand to take his and shake it, which pleased Alan mightily.
    There was no false affectation about her, despite her overwhelming air of fashion and consequence. He looked at Ned and said, only half-jokingly, ‘Beg both our pardons, Ned, and introduce me properly to your sister, there’s a good fellow.’
    The note of command in his voice was such that Ned had begun to obey him when the doors opened again, and Almeria Stanton entered. Her eyebrows rose alarmingly when she saw Ned and Alan standing side by side, theirtwo faces and figures so alike. Yet she thought that there was no doubt which was Ned. The face on the right possessed a power and a strength missing in her great-nephew’s.
    Almeria sighed. Inconvenient likeness were the bane of the aristocracy’s life, but if this were the Australian visitor of whom Ned had spoken then the likeness had to be put down to chance.
    But she would still like to know more of the origins of Ned’s new friend…
    â€˜I understand that you are taking Mr Dilhorne to Cremorne Gardens tonight, Ned. I must remind you that you were out late this morning. I’m not sure that your grandfather would approve of your way of