w. We obey a law of nature rather than claim a
right. One can discuss the merits of a law of nature comfortably by a
fireside. But out there one realises how academic the discussion is, one
obeys it. The white man has always spread himself over the country of the
black man, and we may take it he always will. He has the pioneer's
hankering after the uttermost corners of the earth, and in addition to
that the desire to prosper. He obeys both motives; they are of the
essence of him. Besides, if it comes to a question of abstract right, I
am not sure we couldn't set up a pretty good case. After all, a nation
holds its country primarily to benefit itself, no doubt, but also in
trust for the world; and the two things hang together. It benefits itself
by observing that trust. Now the black man seals his country up, he
doesn't develop it. In the first place he doesn't know how to, and in the
second, if he did, he would forget as soon as he could. I suppose that it
is impossible to estimate the extent of the good which the opening of
Africa has done for an overcrowded continent like Europe; and what
touches Europe touches the world, no doubt of that, is there? But I'm
preaching,' and he came abruptly to an end.

'What I don't understand,' said Mr. Le Mesurier, and he voiced a question
the others felt an impulse to ask, 'is, how on earth you are content to
settle down as a business man in the City?'

Drake retired into himself and replied with some diffidence:

'Oh, the change is not as great perhaps as you think, I have always
looked forward to returning here. One has ambitions of a kind.'

'You ought to go into Parliament,' Clarice said.

Drake laughed, thanking her with the laugh. 'It's rather too early to
speak of that.'

Mrs. Willoughby observed that he actually blushed. A blushing filibuster!
There was a contradiction of terms in the phrase, and he undoubtedly
blushed. A question shot through her mind. Did he blush from modesty, or
because Clarice made the suggestion?

Mrs. Willoughby asked Fielding for an answer as he stood by the door of
her brougham, before she drove away from Beaufort Gardens.

'For both reasons, I should say,' he replied.

'You think, then, he's attracted? He hardly showed signs of it, except
that once, and modesty alone might account for that.'

Mrs. Willoughby laid some insistence upon the possibility.

'I should have been inclined to agree with you,' answered Fielding, 'but
Drake dragged