"I don't want them," with an impish pettiness. "I hate young men in
flannels. I hate houses. I hate afternoon frocks. I hate clean hands.
I hate having to be polite. I want The Kid, giggling insanely at his
own silly jokes. I want The Bear's den and The Bear inside it. I want
to have grubby hands and old shoes and a red face, and eat things in
my fingers, and forget I have heaps and heaps of money for the simple
reason that it is no earthly use if I have."

Meryl smiled softly and wistfully. "I wonder what they are doing?... I
think they will miss us. It is extraordinary how Zimbabwe gets into
one's heart. I have never seen anything anywhere that appealed to me
quite like those old walls, with their untold story and their patience
of the ages. The Sphinx in Egypt may be older, but we know how it came
to be there and who built it. One of Zimbabwe's fascinations seems to
be the absence of all knowledge about it, of all why and wherefore."
She broke off as a Cape cart drove up to the door. "Here is someone
coming to call. I think it is Mrs. Cluer, by father's description."

"Then bother Mrs. Cluer!" snapped the peevish one. "In this country I
wonder if people say they are 'out' or 'asleep' when they do not want
to be found 'at home'?"

But Mrs. Cluer knew both Major Carew and Stanley, so the conversation
was not quite so uninteresting as Diana had anticipated. She was,
moreover, a woman of exceptional charm, and at any other time they
would both have lost their hearts to her.

"You probably did not see much of Major Carew," she said. "He is the
most unsociable man in the country. One can get him to a man's
bridge-party, but not much else; and most of us have given up trying.
I expect it is partly his own doing that he is down there. He always
manages to get work that takes him out on the veldt, if possible."

"He appears to like it," Meryl commented; "and Mr. Stanley and his
companion are very fond of him, in spite of his unsociable ways."

"O, all the men are fond of him," she told them, evidently glad of an
opportunity to sing his praises. "He never gives himself any airs with
them for one thing, and he's just a man all through, living a clean,
sportsman's life; and whether they do the same themselves or not, they
all look up to him and admire him for it, without being afraid he will
come down like a sledgehammer upon their failings. One knows the tone
of the whole police force is better for having an officer like