ANDRIES' PERPLEXITY 189 



Question as are most colonists; in the abstract 

 he hated the idea of sitting at table with col- 

 oured people. But on this occasion he felt 

 himself to be completely outclassed in the items 

 of manners and culture; consequently he be- 

 came acutely embarrassed. However, he ap- 

 preciated the coffee (he told me afterwards 

 that his own wife, who had a wide reputation 

 as a coffee-maker, could not have made it bet- 

 ter) and the bread and honey were delicious. 



Of whom was it that Mr. Hein reminded me? 

 His personality set some familiar chord vibrat- 

 ing. Was it — yes, it was — Parson Primrose; 

 it was he and none other. I tried to extend 

 the parallel. Either of the sons might, at a 

 pitch, have passed for Moses. George? Well, 

 — hardly. Olivia and Sophia? — Oh, well — 

 hm — that was another matter. But at all 

 events there was the dear old Vicar, reincar- 

 nated under a yellow skin, in that citadel of 

 loneliness that had a hundred-mile fosse of 

 desert sand and a rampart of all-but-impassible 

 mountains, — that most remote corner of the 

 habitable world. Chamisso was right : — 

 " Alle menschen sind einander gleich." 



Next morning I met the " Raad," and we 

 discussed the matter of the flogging. That 

 Raad was a quaint assemblage ; surely the most 



