14 TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 
for the proprieties ! This good lady markedly and 
ostentatiously cut the disgraced warrior, who was her 
vis-d-vis at table, and when I asked her why she con- 
sidered a man guilty of anything until he had been 
proved beyond doubt to merit cutting, she looked at 
me with a supercilious eyebrow raised, and a world of 
pity for my ignorance in her tone as she answered 
firmly : “ I must have the moral courage necessary to 
cut an acquaintance lacking principle.” 
“ Wouldn’t it be infinitely more courageous to stick 
to one ? ” I said, and left her. 
We had a very narrow little padre on board too, 
going out to take on some church billet Mussoorie 
way. He was bent on collecting, from all of us who 
were powerless to evade him, enough money to set up 
a screen of sorts in his new tabernacle. Although he 
did not approve of the sweepstakes on the day’s run, 
he sacrificed his feeling sufficiently to accept a free 
share, and would ask us for subscriptions besides, as 
we lounged about the deck individually or in small 
groups, always opening the ball by asking our value- 
less opinions as to the most suitable subject — biblical, 
of course— for illustration. He came to me one day 
and asked me what I thought about the matter. Did 
I think Moses with his mother would make a good 
picture for a screen ? I had no views at all, so had 
to speedily manufacture some. I gave it as my 
opinion that if a screen picture were a necessity Moses 
would certainly do as well as anybody else — in fact 
better. For, after all, Moses was the greatest leader of 
men the world has ever known. He engineered an 
