Sentence:  And there will be Ethel watching, just standing there, stirring something on the kitchen stove, or dusting the mahogany sideboard, or polishing the silver, and looking out the window, staring, just staring, as though she were watching the <WSD>spinifex</WSD> growing, or the sky hanging there, just staring with that terrible effrontery of someone who will not deign to react. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A coastal grass, either in genera (ver=161225) or (ver=161225).