"Do I mean it!" I exclaimed reproachfully, and drank another glass of champagne.
"Just about another week, and we shall be in South Africa," sighed Mrs. Blair.
"Ah, South Africa," I said sentimentally, and began to quote from a recent speech of mine at the Colonial Institute. "What has South Africa to show the world? What indeed? Her fruit and her farms, her wool and her wattles, her herds and her hides, her gold and her diamonds"
I was hurrying on, because I knew that as soon as I paused Reeves would butt in and inform me that the hides were worthless because the animals hung themselves up on barbed wire or something of that sort, would crab everything else, and end up with the hardships of the miners on the Rand. And I was not in the mood to be abused as a Capitalist. However, the interruption came from another source at the magic word diamonds.
"Diamonds!" said Mrs. Blair ecstatically.
"Diamonds!" breathed Miss Beddingfeld.
They both addressed Colonel Race.
"I suppose you've been to Kimberley?"
I had been to Kimberley too, but I didn't manage to say so in time. Race was being inundated with questions. What were mines like? Was it true that the natives were kept shut up in compounds? And so on.
Race answered their questions and showed a good knowledge of his subject. He described the methods of housing the natives, the searches instituted, and the various precautions that De Beers took.
"Then it's practically impossible to steal any diamonds?" asked Mrs. Blair with as keen an air of disappointment as though she had been journeying there for the express purpose.
"Nothing's impossible, Mrs. Blair. Thefts do occur—
