which I
have suggested, I confess that I hoped that long ago she had returned
into the hands of the Power which made her, for what would be the state
of a young white lady who for two decades had been at the mercy of these
black brutes?

And yet, and yet, after my experience of Mavovo and his Snake, I did not
feel inclined to dogmatise about anything. Who and what was I, that I
should venture not only to form opinions, but to thrust them down the
throats of others? After all, how narrow are the limits of the knowledge
upon which we base our judgments. Perhaps the great sea of intuition
that surrounds us is safer to float on than are these little islets of
individual experience, whereon we are so wont to take our stand.

Meanwhile my duty was not to speculate on the dreams and mental
attitudes of others, but like a practical hunter and trader, to carry to
a successful issue an expedition that I was well paid to manage, and to
dig up a certain rare flower root, if I could find it, in the marketable
value of which I had an interest. I have always prided myself upon my
entire lack of imagination and all such mental phantasies, and upon an
aptitude for hard business and an appreciation of the facts of life,
that after all are the things with which we have to do. This is the
truth; at least, I hope it is. For if I were to be _quite_ honest, which
no one ever has been, except a gentleman named Mr. Pepys, who, I think,
lived in the reign of Charles II, and who, to judge from his memoirs,
which I have read lately, did not write for publication, I should have
to admit that there is another side to my nature. I sternly suppress it,
however, at any rate for the present.

While we were at breakfast Hans who, still suffering from headache and
remorse, was lurking outside the gateway far from the madding crowd
of critics, crept in like a beaten dog and announced that Babemba was
approaching followed by a number of laden soldiers. I was about to
advance to receive him. Then I remembered that, owing to a queer native
custom, such as that which caused Sir Theophilus Shepstone, whom I used
to know very well, to be recognised as the holder of the spirit of the
great Chaka and therefore as the equal of the Zulu monarchs, Brother
John was the really important man in our company. So I gave way and
asked him to be good enough to take my place and to live up to that
station in savage life to which it had pleased God to call him.

I am boun