104 Australian Life 



taste for yachting, an expensive hobby, it may 

 be said, has chosen to live in one of the outlying 

 suburbs by the seashore. His villa faces the bay; 

 it is his own, but a similar one could be rented 

 for ;8o, or ^90, a year, inclusive of all rates and 

 taxes. To that sum must be added the cost of 

 the season ticket for railway or boat, but for an 

 outlay of ;ioo a year a charming home can be 

 obtained. The house is of the bungalow type, 

 cool, roomy, and convenient, and the garden is a 

 miracle of brightness. The attraction of the sub- 

 urb is the beach. A little jetty makes a break- 

 water for the fleet of tiny centre-board yachts 

 anchored in its lee, and near it is a bathing place, 

 enclosed by a wooden palisade to keep the sharks 

 at bay. The residents can be in the city half an 

 hour after the train leaves their railway station, 

 and once home again, they are in a different at- 

 mosphere, getting the first breath of the cool 

 evening breeze at the close of the burning summer 

 days. 



Our solicitor's professional work does not take 

 him into the courts, and has nothing to distin- 

 guish it from the practice of a similar business 

 elsewhere. At half- past nine, he is at his office, 

 and at one, he lunches with a few friends at an 

 establishment that is deserving of some descrip- 

 tion. The proprietors are two young ladies, well 

 known in society, and although they spend their 

 days in a tearoom, they retain their circle of 

 friends, among whom are many of their customers. 



