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upon the empty street, but in reality to hide her momentary embarrassment. Why was there such magic in his touch, and why did the pressure of his hand thrill as hand had never done before? The question passed through her mind, and as it sped, she tried to answer it by assuming that it was because of its association with the farewell of a pleasant acquaint

ance.

A mere make-believe, this halting makeshift of an explanation: it would not deceive any woman— it did not deceive herself for a moment. The process of introspection was rapid and conclusive. Forgiveness! If he had, there and then, madly clasped her to his breast, in full view of the whole assembly, she would not have fainted, she would not have screamed, nor gone into hysterics -nay, she would not have been ashamed, nor reproved him for the action, nor heeded the comments of the company, or its ridicule: with her head upon his breast she could have proudly borne all.

It was her business now to recover herself, and she did so by an effort. "I do," she said, "freely and fully forgive, because I believe you to be a noble, honest, generous, chivalrous soldier; but why-oh, why did you not speak to me before?"

"There is no time now," he replied, "save for apology and farewell. Let us seize the moments -look!"

Georgie Collyrium was bearing down on them full sail-suspecting that there was something up.

"You will retract the no," he asked, in an eager whisper, "C even though you withhold the yes?"

"I will retract it," she answered, with a look more eloquent than speech; "let us wait."

And then they glided away to the music of a most delicious valse -the last on the programme-just as Georgie arrived to rally them; a valse to be afterwards preferred by Lavinia to any other that had been or ever could be composed.

There are differences of opinion on all subjects, and the same valse was one which Georgie did not think anything of-I know this for a fact, because she did not dance it; and I had therefore a good opportunity of hearing her opinion as I stood by her side in the recess just vacated by the major and his partner. The truth was, that at this very ball Georgie had come to the fixed determination to waste no more chances, and trifle with no more opportunities. Time was when she used to be obliged to split dances half to one partner and half to another-in order to satisfy the demands of all. Now there was an ominous change. If the army failed her, she must try the church; and failing these two professions, she must set her cap at a mere layman. She shuddered at the idea of becoming a cross and wrinkled old maid.

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SOME VERY NOBLE SAVAGES.

"FOR the Right which needs assist

ance,

'Gainst the Wrong which needs resistance,"

is a plea which may appropriately be urged in behalf of the inhabitants of a remote corner in our world-wide empire — Zululand. Though not much larger than Wales, it possesses a potentiality for the development of resources which may ultimately render it one of the foremost districts on the face of the earth in point of wealth and population; and above all, it may be regarded as a test place for the justice and wisdom, or the converse, of our dealings with the natives of South Africa. My stay in the country was short, and my direct experience was consequently limited; and yet should I not say, therefore my fresh impressions may not be undeserving of attention, by the same reasoning which assigns a special value to a woman's first thoughts, or to a wine-taster's instantaneous verdict?

One evening towards the close of 1890, accompanied by a brother officer, I am speeding along the fifty miles of roughly outlined track leading from Verulam, the Natal railway terminus, to the Zulu frontier. Our vehicle, the red, two-wheeled, "V.R." mailcart, so familiar in the precincts of St Martin's-le-Grand, seems oddly out of place in these wilds, which, save for small clusters, at long intervals, of European little tin erections, and for a few Kafir kraals, are absolutely uninhabited. Our luggage is quite nominal in amount we have been even obliged to commit to the transport of an ox-waggon a friendly Christ

mas plum-pudding intrusted to us at Maritzburg as a poetical souvenir to an English sojourner at Eshowe. Our four half-broken horses, lashed by our reckless halfbreed driver, lay themselves out like greyhounds at a desperate gallop, which at times takes away our breath, and makes us cling to our cart for dear limb and life. Then, with scant notice, night closes in pitch-dark, and we find ourselves standing on the steep heights overhanging the Tugela river, discarded by our driver, and utterly at a loss as to our next proceeding. But some five or six savages suddenly and unexpectedly start up out of the darkness, sign to us to follow them down a craggy pathway, and in a cranky little boat ferry us across broad river, silent, swift, and tepid as it splashes over hands. The fireflies are sparkling through the hot inky atmosphere, the bull-frogs startle us with their bellowing, the thunder is rolling with an incessant awful roar, and, as bewildered I pant up the precipice on the other side, a savage seizes my wrist with a vice-like yet kindly grasp, and leads me like a prisoner to our haven of rest, a small tin wayfarer's tenement.

our

We are now in Zululand proper, within the area of the military operations of 1879, and even the few days I spent here, far from the presence of all save three or four white men, and surrounded by a Zulu population, gave me some glimmer of native habits, of native character, and of the idiosyncrasies of the locality. True, this was subsequently confirmed or corrected by further experience,

but for simplicity's sake I here introduce some of my first impressions.

One day having heedlessly left my small kit spread over the floor of my lean-to outside room, I find on my return, two hours after, about thirty Zulu men and women of all ages crowded about the open door, many staring with curiosity at the collection of flannel shirts and other clothing, boots, knife, tobacco, and even money. Any one of these naked savages might with impunity have helped himself to any of these articles, which would have been a perfect treasure to him. But the idea never seemed to have entered their heads-not the smallest trifle was missing. Genuine untainted Zulus are too noble to be thieves. They exult in the possession of a flannel shirt, they fully appreciate the gift of a shilling; but their native code of honour forbids pilfering, and property is far more safe in their midst than were it deposited in a first-class English hotel, or subjected to the inquisition of the landlady of a first-class London lodging. At intervals the natives came to the store to purchase blankets, or sugar, or some other requirement of their simple lives; but the law here effectually restrains Europeans from selling to them those two articles which elsewhere are unscrupulously traded, and which are the curses of the South African race-firearms, including gunpowder, and spirits. The former restriction is rigidly enforced, both wholesale and retail, and has done much to diminish the recklessness of bloodshed which is the invariable characteristic of all savage tribes. Even when I landed at Durban an official instantly snatched up my gun, and ere I could recover it I had fully to satisfy the civil custom-house su

perintendent as to my identity and bona fides. At Pietermaritzburg I succeeded in obtaining a small quantity of powder only through the special order of a magistrate, to whom I was called on to declare that I required it merely for sporting purposes. The amount so authorised is limited, I believe, to 10 lb. in twelve months to one applicant. Unhappily the law is occasionally evaded by the criminal greed of whites, chiefly from the Cape Colony, some of whom occupy a high social status, and who have succeeded in baffling the utmost efforts of the Natal authorities, and in establishing a regular traffic through a secret route called "the Gun Runner's Pass."

As regards the prohibition of the sale of liquor to the natives, even anti-total abstinence opinions must rejoice that the law is here generally successful, though of course it is evaded in some outof-the-way places by miscreants who, for the sake of a few sovereigns, perpetrate an evil-doing perhaps as great as is within the power of man to commit. Let it be remembered that with savages drink means, not detriment, but downright destruction and death. In the Transvaal they are permitted to buy, at almost a nominal price, as much as they please. They toss it down like water, and the slaughtering results are appalling. Never once during my sojourn in Zululand did I see a drunken savage; and possibly this atmosphere of general sobriety may have influenced even the European hard drinkers. Total abstinence advocates may be interested in hearing that proprietors of drinking-stores declare the amount of ginger-ale consumed has of late become amazing, even amongst white labourers toiling

under the glare of an almost tropical sun.

Mealies are the chief food of the Kafirs, but they rejoice at an occasional opportunity of feasting off a tough "trek" ox-no matter if it has died from natural causes-albeit their glimmering of religious superstition forbids them the use of animal food. They loathe fish as we should loathe eating a snake; but, on the other hand, their fancies for certain titbits run in a curious direction. One afternoon a spray of glittering green foliage is brought to me, from whence are depending the most enormous caterpillars I have ever seen in my life, as thick as my thumb, and twice as long,fat green fellows, studded with small sparkling scales. The little Zulu girl from whom they had been obtained wept because had taken away her food." I flatly declined to try a caterpillar or two, whereupon a native eagerly selects a couple of the finest, pinches off their tails, manipulates glove-fashion the wriggling creatures one within the other, frizzles them before the fire, and finally daintily devours the nauseous morsel, with the lingering enjoyment of an English schoolboy eating a fine fresh strawberry.

we

Close at hand was "Bond's Drift," the ferry across the Tugela connecting the Natal and Zululand roads; and here I encountered an occasional European teamster, or a farmer, or a ferryman, or a Government messenger, or a doctor, of whom three or four are dotted about, at distances of thirty or forty miles apart. They

form a pleasing contrast to the loafing specimens of the same class in the more populous parts of South Africa, who seem to assume that a worthless fellow in England is instantly levelled up to a valuable member of a colony the moment he disembarks. These Zululand strays, however rough in dress and offhand in address, are frequently stamped with certain characteristics of gentlemen, leading to the deduction that they have been drafted from a far higher community than their present avocations would imply, and that they are bravely battling against adverse fortune. I came across a strange specimen of an agent for an American life insurance company, who, with an amusingly scanty equipment in his saddlebags, was riding hundreds of miles through these wilds on the chance of picking up a chance subscriber. Enterprise could hardly go further.

My companion was desirous of visiting the grave of a relation who had died in this neighbourhood during the Zulu war; and one sweltering morning we betake ourselves to Fort Pearson, seven miles distant, where once were concentrated so much national attention and so many private sorrows, but now lost in a weird solitude which is almost oppressive. We found the old earthworks easily enough, and their very outline spoke volumes. No formulated scarps, bastions, or banquettes : merely a gradation of rough parapets hastily thrown up under the stress of peril, and trending one above the other towards the apex of the highest hills. Our enemy

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1 Though wandering from my subject, I cannot forbear mentioning that, during the recent intense Cape heat, the gunner parties employed in the formidable labour of mounting 23-ton guns have daily taken out with them a bag of oatmeal, which, stirred up in small quantities in water, is eagerly drunk, effectually quenches thirst, and affords a singular amount of support.

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was numerous as the hosts of Sennacherib, but unskilled as the ancient Britons; and truly an antiquarian Oldbuck might declare the rude trace an intrenchment of some prehistoric nation until deceived by a Zulu's declaration, "I mind the bigging of it."

Long and fruitless, however, was our search for the grave, during which we only just escape treading on a monstrous reptile until at last we hap upon a small "God's acre" enclosed with barbed fencing, and marked by an exceptionally tall, gaunt euphorbia treea species of giant cactus. Though the spot is covered with beautifully tangled growth, it is in the same condition of careful delimitation

as

when left by the survivors eleven years ago. Conspicuous among thirteen graves, marked by simple wooden crosses, is a plain white tombstone, whereon we read that Captain Wynne, R.E., here died of fever in 1879, and the text, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." Stay; here are some more words blurred by sun and climate: "Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori "—and there flashes across my recollection the pathetic circumstances I had heard many years ago specially accounting for this quotation from Horace.

In the midst of the toil, the sickness, and the fighting of the campaign, Wynne used to elicit the friendly chaff of his comrades by his persistency in classical quotations. One day he too was stricken by that fatal malaria which played such havoc among our men. After a few hours, feeling that his end was at hand, he sent for some of his brother officers, intrusted to them certain measures and messages consequent on his approaching death-he had left a young wife in England-and added in dying accents, with a

dying smile: "Now I must make a last quotation, and I do not think you fellows will chaff me this time-'Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori'"-and so slept into the dawn of that eternal day which fools call death.

Musing in profound reverie on the coincidence which had brought the half-forgotten story face to face with my chance visit to the subject's solitary grave in the wilds of South Africa, I am startled almost out of my skin by a deep organ-sound, "Ha-a-a," at my elbow. A Zulu had noiselessly crept up to me, and uttering this wonted note of respectful greeting, with his right hand raised high over his head in salute, and his left grasping an assegai and a knob-kerry, he stood motionless and splendidly stalwart, like a carved statue of the ideal noble savage. Pointing to a brass badge on his arm, inscribed "Zulu Tugela Patrol," in token of amity, he made signs that he could show us another resting-place of our countrymen, and led us to a second enclosure as neat as the first, where I counted sixty graves of British soldiers, and where the frequency of "died from fever" was a more melancholy record than "killed in action."

Game is plentiful in parts of Zululand, but circumstances prevented my undertaking any shooting expeditions. I can only state that about the Tugela veldt are abundance of partridges and quail in season, alligators are numerous in the river, and monkeys swarm in the woods. I witnessed the exceedingly revolting sight of the skinning of four of our poor relations," the slaughter of which is only just saved from being wanton cruelty in that their pelts are not entirely without value.

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