my home. The few years that I had been in
England had taught me much as regards the rules of so-called society.
In England there was formality and etiquette which did not exist in the
Colonies, particularly at the Cape. Friendship in England and at the
Cape conveyed entirely different meanings. At the latter, a friend's
house was almost like your own: you did not think it necessary to wait
for a special invitation to go to dinner and take a bed, but if you rode
over in the afternoon it was considered unfriendly if you did not stop
till the next morning. I had forgotten these conditions, and so had
first stopped at an hotel. By noon, however, I had reached Mr
Rossmar's house, and was received as though I had been a long-lost
brother.

I was surprised, when I saw the Miss Rossmars, to find that they were
more pretty than any girls I had seen in London. They had, too, the
great charm of being natural and unaffected, and to be less occupied in
seeking admiration than English young ladies. In spite of what I had
gone through in the Zulu country, I was in reality merely a boy when I
formerly stayed at Wynberg. Now I was a man; and the experience I had
gained in society in London had made me capable of judging of the
relative merits of that great paradox,--a young lady.

A certain portion of the day was occupied in making arrangements for my
voyage to Natal. I found that a small vessel would sail from Table Bay
in a month's time, and I had made arrangements with the owners to use
this vessel almost as if she were my own. I had brought from England
quantities of beads of various colours, looking glasses, blankets, and
some hundreds of assagy blades that I had caused to be made at
Birmingham. All these things were, I knew, highly esteemed by the
Caffres, and would purchase nearly everything they possessed. I was not
so busy with my preparations but that I had plenty of time to pass with
the Miss Rossmars. We rode nearly every day, had climbing expeditions
up the Table Mountain, musical afternoons at home when the weather was
not suitable for going out, and in fact enjoyed ourselves as people in
the Colonies alone seem to do.

The natural results followed. I became much attached to Nina Rossmar,
but as this is not a love story, but merely an account of my adventures
in the wild country of south-eastern Africa, I will not weary my readers
with the old, old tale, but will merely state that I wrote to my father
and