ght. A woman with a husband and child in this freshness and sunshine
is at least better off than if she were in a city slum, and her man
probably out of work, and her child dying for want of fresh air."

"But that is not the only alternative!... And in any case to suffer in
company is almost always easier than to suffer alone."

"But they don't suffer, or, at any rate, they needn't necessarily.
That is where you are so short-sighted. The average woman wants a
husband and a child, and I don't see that it matters much whether she
has them in the wilderness or in a city; the main thing is to have
them."

"Well, for my part," put in Aunt Emily in an aggrieved voice, "if I
could only have a man in a cloud of dust I'd sooner never see the
species again," which tickled Diana hugely and caused her to horrify
her aunt by adding, "But what an advantage for him never to be able to
see what you were doing! One could have such high jinks!..." Then,
changing her voice subtly, she enquired, "Is it too much for you,
aunty?... I mean the dust and the journey? because there must be such
very much worse things ahead, and ..."

"That will do, my dear. I can bear it," and her expression of mournful
resignation tickled Diana more than ever. On the day before they
reached Bulawayo, however, when hour after hour brought very little
but scrub and sand, she and her aunt were very nervy and irritable,
and only Meryl, with her dreams and ideals, continued quietly
interested. When they reached Bulawayo matters did not improve much,
because a sand-storm was blowing and it was almost impossible to go
out. Mr. Pym packed them off to the Victoria Falls as soon as
possible, and remained behind himself to complete the arrangements for
his trip. On the further railway journey the dust was worse than ever,
and utterly out of heart with everything Rhodesian, Aunt Emily retired
to a suite of rooms at the hotel on their arrival and said she should
stay there until the cool of the evening.

So Diana and Meryl stood on Danger Point alone, when they took their
first long look at the amazing cataract of waters. Neither spoke for
many seconds, and then Diana breathed, "I'm glad Aunt Emily didn't
come. She would have called it 'lovely' or 'sweet.'"

Meryl laid a sympathetic hand on her arm and murmured, "And you?..."

"One couldn't call it anything. It just _is_." And Meryl with her
understanding heart pressed her arm in silence.

They walked together thro