al doings and
sayings during their absence. But this from Diana he could always
take. Whether she knew it or not, and whether she cared or not, at the
time she probably wielded a more direct influence over van Hert than
anyone else living. Certainly a more direct influence than Meryl and
her father, for whereas his liking for them only tempered his rashness
and indiscretions, Diana aimed shafts straight at any of his rabid
policies in a manner that caused him secretly to reconsider. Yet all
his devotion was drawn to Meryl in her fairness and quiet strength,
and the hope of his heart was still to win her.

As it happened, it was a very white-faced, silent Meryl who sat on the
deep verandah that afternoon of his first call, and was content
chiefly to listen to Diana waging her usual war. That astute young
person had much to say, in her own slangy phraseology, concerning
certain utterances of the Dutch extremists, openly derogatory to the
English, and seemingly opposed to any spirit of racial conciliation.

"Why don't you try and teach your people to play the game?" she asked
him, with a fine scorn. "Do you hear any of our eminent men haranguing
about 'keeping down the Dutch' and 'steam-rollering the Dutch,' and
without any hesitation openly speaking of themselves as a separate and
superior race? Whatever our men think, they are at least sportsmen
enough just now to keep it to themselves, for the sake of the hopes
and aims of the country. But you apparently allow your following to
say anything, and either pretend not to hear or take no notice. Listen
to this, said by a predicant of the Dutch Reformed Church...." She
picked up a pamphlet, lying near, and read aloud: "'We are a nation
with our own taal, traditions, and history. We must now stand shoulder
to shoulder and hand in hand for the rights of _our_ people.... May
God give _our_ people strength to be unanimous!' Unanimous in what?...
Why, forcing the issue of the language question according to their own
ends, and retrenching English teachers, and generally looking upon
themselves as the superior, chosen people whom God meant to reign
alone in South Africa."

"My dear young lady," he remonstrated, "can you blame me for the
unwise, indiscreet utterances of every Dutch predicant who opens his
mouth?"

"Why, of course I do. You are a leader, and you ought to protest
openly against any such utterance; but naturally, if you only consider
it unwise and indiscreet, you d