of capital slipping away and
bills mounting; of the gradual cutting down of comforts and increased
austerity of living: a story common enough in all colonies where Life
puts men through the mill again and again to prove and harden them.
Acting perhaps on the lines:

"It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life moves along like a song,
But the man worth while is the man who can smile
When everything goes dead wrong."

Life wants a lot of men and women whom she knows are "worth while" in
carrying out her great affairs, and that is perhaps why so often
"everything goes dead wrong."

Diana maintained her role of gay inconsequence because it pleased her
best.

"It all sounds very superior and all that rot, and I'm sure Meryl
would call you a hero; but I should swear myself black and blue in
your shoes, and that's about what you do pretty often, I expect."

His smile grew fresher and more genuine.

"It doesn't do much good though."

"O yes it does. Don't tell me! When things get into a silly stupid
mess with me I just shut the door and say every swear word I know
until I feel better. That's one advantage of living in a hollow in the
desert. You needn't even bother to shut the door!... You can shout
your ruffled feelings to the kopjes, and I suppose they echo the words
back to you. How perfectly splendid! That's a thing about Rhodesia I
hadn't thought of before. Of course, the echoes are sometimes
wonderful; so if you were to shout a few swear words the kopjes would
shout them after you; and that's much better than 'dreaming stillness'
in my opinion. But why aren't you and your brother making a fortune? I
thought everyone in Rhodesia was making one who had a mine."

"We don't get up enough gold. By the time we have paid our royalty and
the expenses there is nothing left."

"Then the royalty must be too big. Who do you pay it to?"

He coloured, and she watched him humorously.

"Has my uncle something to do with your company? O, don't look
uncomfortable. I'll just talk to him about it. There ought to be
occasions when no royalty is taken at all. I'll tell him so."

Colin Macaulay laughed into her smiling eyes.

"As it is, there is a charge for everything, even the grass the
donkeys eat!..."

"O, monstrous! I never heard of such a thing. I'll interview the board
about it if you like. Tell your donkeys they may eat anything they
choose in future, it is not going down in the bill any more!.