The king parrot is a magnificent bird, and the clear blue of a Melbourne spring day sets them off perfectly.

Normally a timid creature, when the sand squink eats the eels it gains both courage and an electric charge;

She flashed an approving smile.

“I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital, the chlorotic squatters on huge yachts,[…]!”