lls she had begun to wreathe around him, so unconsciously
to herself, so unconsciously to him, when first they talked together,
were drawn, woven, more thoroughly now. And in his strange, new
revivification--the return of strength and health and spirits--he
rejoiced that it was so, and laughed, and defied circumstances, and Fate
and the Future.

CHAPTER VI.

"PIRATE" HAZON.

If the population of Johannesburg devoted its days to doing _konza_ to
King Scrip, it devoted its nights to amusing itself. There was an
enterprising theatrical company and a lively circus. There was a
menagerie, where an exceedingly fine young woman was wont nightly to
place her head within a lion's mouth for the delectation, and to the
enthusiastic admiration of Judaea, and all the region round about. There
were smoking-concerts galore--more or less good of their kind--and,
failing sporadic forms of pastime, there were numerous bars--and
barmaids, all of which counted for something in the relaxation of the
forty thousand inhabitants of Johannesburg--mostly brokers. We are
forgetting. There were other phases of nocturnal excitement, more or
less of a stimulating nature--frequent rows, to wit, culminating in a
nasty rough-and-tumble, and now and then a startling and barbarous
murder.

Now, to Laurence Stanninghame not any of the above forms of diversion
held out the slightest possible attractiveness. The theatrical show
struck him as third-rate, and as for circuses and menageries, he
supposed they had been good fun when he was a child. He did not care
twopence about the pleasures of the bar unless he wanted a drink, and
for barmaids and their allurements less than nothing. So having
already, with Rainsford or Wheeler, and seven other spirits more wicked
than themselves, gone the round three or four times, just to see what
there was to be seen, and found that not much, he had subsided into a
good bit of a stay-at-home. A pipe, a newspaper or book, and bed, would
be his evening program--normally, that is; for now and then he would
stroll out to Booyseus. But of that more anon.

The hotel at which he had taken up his quarters was rather a quiet one,
and frequented by quiet people. One set of rooms, among which was his,
opened upon a _stoep_, which fronted a yard, which opened upon the
street. Here of an evening he would drag a chair out upon the _stoep_
and smoke and read, or occasionally chat with some fellow-sojourner in
the house.