the hot steamy wilds of Matabeleland, she looked as
cool and fresh as with all the appliances of comfort and civilisation
ready to hand. Tarrant, who rather fancied himself as a connoisseur in
that line, was struck. Here was something quite out of the common, he
thought to himself, as his glance took in the animated, expressive face,
the lighting up of the blue eyes, the readiness wherewith the lips would
curve into the most captivating of smiles, the dainty figure, and the
cool, neat, tasteful attire. Mrs Hollingworth was a pretty woman,
Moseley had declared, and rightly; but his chum had never prepared him
for anything like this.

The while Nidia herself was replying to the questions volubly fired into
her by Moseley. They had come up to Bulawayo in due course. Fatiguing!
No; on the whole she had rather enjoyed the journey--the novelty and so
on--and everybody they met had been very kind to them, and had done all
they knew to make things easy. How was Mrs Bateman? Oh, flourishing.
In fact, when Mr Bateman returned she herself had, of course, felt _de
trop_, and so had come to inflict herself on Mrs Hollingworth, and see
some of the real wild side of the country.

The last in her most arch and quizzical manner.

"It's a poor time you've chosen to look at it in, Miss Commerell,"
remarked Hollingworth. "Rinderpest has about done for us all, and bar
that the whole show has been as dry as chips."

"Yet, it's all very interesting to me, at any rate," she returned. "And
the savages. I can hardly believe they are the wicked ferocious beings
you all make out, poor, patient, put-upon looking mortals! Some of the
old men have such really fine faces, and their voices are so soft and
kindly--though, of course, I can't understand a word they say," she
broke off, with a whimsical candour that made everybody laugh.

Hollingworth whistled.

"`Soft and kindly!' Why, they are just about as sulky and discontented
as they can well be--though, poor devils, one can hardly blame them. It
must be hard, rough luck to see their cattle shot down by hundreds--by
thousands--under their very noses. Of course they abuse the Government
for giving them back the cattle with one hand only to take it away with
the other. It's only what we should do ourselves."

"I should think so. Poor things! Really, Mr Hollingworth, I think you
seem to have treated them all very badly."

Such a sentiment was not popular in Matabeleland then, n