ons?"

"You cannot be sure about that. Seek out the strongest and best men of
both sides, and help them to gain the power and hold it. Your own side
is not without blame. At the first big election after the country was
settling down again, you could not even stand together. At the polls
there were three parties, where there should have been only two.
Englishmen opposed Englishmen, mostly over a question of small
differences, and for personal pride of place. South Africa has never
yet recovered from that mistake. You must not hold two hands out to
the Boers--the hands of differing Englishmen--but _one hand_, that is
absolutely reliable and sincere."

"It is what I have heard my father say, and others also, but progress
is very slow. There is much racial hatred rampant still."

"It will yield gradually. The fittest must prevail in the end; but
obviously that fittest will prove to be neither Dutch nor English, but
South African."

"How do you think it will prevail?" She was white now, and her eyes
were gazing very straight out into the night.

"By intermarriage chiefly. It is almost the only solution to the
problem. Speaking one tongue, owning one country, will never help it,
as Dutch and English interests united upon one hearth. That is why you
must be patient, and just go steadily on, avoiding dissension as much
as possible, while trying to raise the tone of both races on every
side."

There was a little tremor in her voice as she said, "And are we to
take it just meekly when Englishmen are ousted for Dutchmen and loyal
service ignored?"

"I think you can only be patient at present. The strong part will lie
with you, though the others seem to triumph. If the party in power
find the country is at a standstill, and not progressing as they want
it to, they will end by rearranging the public posts, and the
Englishmen will come back because they are the fittest. As a race, you
know, we are inclined to be domineering and somewhat overbearing. We
certainly have ourselves to thank for some of the trouble. Probably
while the Dutchman is 'top dog' he is having his fling, and we are
learning a little wholesome wisdom. When the reaction comes the
country will be the gainer."

"And in the meantime intermarriage?" she questioned slowly.

"In the meantime intermarriage," he said, with quiet emphasis.

But he little dreamt that at the cross-roads he was pointing her to a
path of tears.

They heard Diana returning, and he