The Maluka suggested that he might yet succeed in persuading some
suitable woman to come out with us, as maid or companion; but the
opposition, wagging wise heads, pursed incredulous lips, as it declared
that "no one but a fool would go out there for either love or money." A
prophecy that came true, for eventually we went "bush" womanless.

The Maluka's eyes twinkled as he listened. "Does the cap fit, little
'un?" he asked; but the women-folk told him that it was not a matter for
joking.

"Do you know there is not another white woman within a hundred-mile
radius ?" they asked; and the Maluka pointed out that it was not all
disadvantage for a woman to be alone in a world of men. "The men who form
her world are generally better and truer men, because the woman in their
midst is dependent on them alone, for companionship, and love, and
protecting care," he assured them.

"Men are selfish brutes," the opposition declared, rather irrelevantly,
looking pointedly at the Maluka.

He smiled with as much deference as he could command. "Also," he said, "a
woman alone in a world of men rarely complains of their selfishness"; and
I hastened to his assistance. "Particularly when those men are
chivalrous bushmen," I began, then hesitated, for, since reading the
telegrams, my ideas of bush chivalry needed readjustment.

"Particularly when those men are chivalrous bushmen," the Maluka agreed,
with the merry twinkle in his eyes; for he perfectly understood the cause
of the sudden breakdown. Then he added gravely: "For the average bushman