ant is content to be mediocre because of his prejudices. Now
when we were in Rhodesia ..." and she paused, regarding him with the
bright, piquant eyes of a small bird.

"Well, what about Rhodesia? You didn't find much brilliance there, I
imagine? Brilliance does not thrive on bully beef and existence in a
mud hut."

"Neither does 'back-veldt' obtuseness and narrow-minded bigotry and
indiscreet loquacity, Meinheer van Hert."

He could not help laughing at the droll way she made the statement.
"Well, what does thrive?"

"Silence," thoughtfully.

"But that did not appeal to you?" with significance.

"Not perhaps so much as the growl," was her enigmatic reply.

"And did you like this wild, wilderness land of silence?"

She regarded him with half-grave, half-mocking eyes. "Well, we
understood why _you_ want to have a finger in Rhodesia's pie, you and
your various active organisations working in the interests of a Dutch
South Africa. Any child could see what such a country would be worth
to you. But you won't succeed, my friend. They've got a few strong men
up there who believe in 'to-morrow' more than 'to-day,' and are not
afraid to forego present honours for future progress. You won't bribe
them, and you won't hoodwink them, and you won't get them. They may
not have much weight or power or money to back them, but there's
something in the atmosphere up there, something in the very air, that
would tell anyone with a grain of perspicacity they could be dangerous
if they liked. I shouldn't rouse the sleeping lion in Rhodesia if I
were you, Meinheer, you and your colleagues, with coercion or anything
else--that way lie explosives."

At that moment Mr. Pym joined them, and the conversation at once
became general, though van Hert laughingly told his host he had been
undergoing a regular hoarding hustling. Then he told them of a few
happenings since they went away, and because he was as glad as he
could be to see them back again, all his natural versatility came
uppermost, and one could easily perceive why he was a leader of men,
and likely to remain so.

"If only one could make him see straight," said Diana, when they spoke
of it afterwards, "instead of with the warped vision of a one-idea'd
fanatic."

Later she tried to draw Meryl a little concerning her attitude towards
him, but Meryl would only maintain an unrevealing silence, and Diana
was baffled and troubled. She felt vaguely that some new thought was
forming