stock of experience and his sturdy English character, made a great
impression on his mind. He had never met a man quite like him before.
Nor was this friendship unreciprocated, for his host took a wonderful
fancy to John Niel.

"You see, my dear," he explained to his niece Bessie, "he is quiet, and
he doesn't know much about farming, but he's willing to learn, and such
a gentleman. Now, where one has Kafirs to deal with, as on a place
like this, you must have a _gentleman_. Your mean white will never get
anything out of a Kafir; that's why the Boers kill them and flog them,
because they can't get anything out of them without. But you see Captain
Niel gets on well enough with the 'boys.' I think he'll do, my dear,
I think he'll do," and Bessie quite agreed with him. And so it came to
pass that after this six weeks' trial the bargain was struck finally,
and John paid over his thousand pounds, becoming the owner of a third
interest in Mooifontein.

Now it is not possible, in a general way, for a man of John Niel's age
to live in the same house with a young and lovely woman like Bessie
Croft without running more or less risk of entanglement. Especially
is this so when the two people have little or no outside society or
distraction to divert their attention from each other. Not that there
was, at any rate as yet, the slightest hint of affection between them.
Only they liked one another very much, and found it pleasant to be a
good deal together. In short, they were walking along that easy, winding
road which leads to the mountain paths of love. It is a very broad road,
like another road that runs elsewhere, and, also like this last, it has
a wide gate. Sometimes, too, it leads to destruction. But for all that
it is a most agreeable one to follow hand-in-hand, winding as it does
through the pleasant meadows of companionship. The view is rather