People of the colony of New South Wales, just before it became one of a federation of states to form the country of Australia at the turn of the 20th century, were scandalised by the marriage of a white woman to a black man.
Jimmy Governor's three-month's rampage across the central and northern part of the state brought this perceived social abberation to the public's attention and approbation.
Yet as far as Ethel was concerned, marrying a part-Aboriginal man had been an acceptable thing for her to do.
He was good-looking, a hard worker, keen on her in preference to other girls and wanted to marry her.
What could be 'wrong' about that?