'Using anthropological accounts of the rites of passage as a point of departure, this essay argues that the sea voyage is the pivotal moment of threshold in the narrative of colonial expatriation for the young Australian woman. This liminal and interstitial moment is narrated as a pedagogical interlude in both Stead's novel and short story; one that taps into the range of possibilities of femininity, landscape and desire elaborated in the first quarter of For Love Alone.' (156-157)