Chapter 11 Summary

The wedding is August 25th at the Holy Cross Church in Gillanbone, a modest affair with dinner at the Hotel Imperial afterwards. Luke has decided they will honeymoon in North Queensland, where he hopes to find a job cutting sugar cane. Luke is an old-fashioned man, who believes he should take title to all his wife's possessions upon marriage. He is pleasantly surprised to learn that she has fourteen thousand pounds in the bank. Hoping to buy their own station, he insists they will have to work hard and save every penny for a few years. Meggie meekly agrees. At the last minute, the wedding is moved to the presbytery, when Luke refuses to convert to Catholicism.

The newly married couple immediately boards the one weekly train to Goondiswindi to connect with the Brisbane mail train and the Cairns express. Maggie is disappointed...