Not far from hysterical laughter, Georgina nearly retorted : ‘No, I’m Dr Livingstone.’ She stopped it in time, though, and murmured: ‘Yes, sir. Mr Roper, I presume.’ She hoped she didn’t sound facetious, and that he would not take it as effrontery. He did not.. He extended his large hand, so she extended hers, and the next moment she was biting back tears of pain. Quite unconscious of her torture of crushed bones— she was sure they were crushed—the big man waved magnanimously to the bed for Georgina to sit down, since there was only one chair in the hut, and he occupied it. ‘How have you settled, Brown?’ he asked. His use of the surname irritated Georgina. It was not an Australianism; Australians were immediately on first name terms. An ordinary Australian would have called her George by this, asked her to call him Larry. Age made no difference, environment, status, still surnames were never used.
