380 
IN AFRICA 
shop. Fatal mistake! Ten years and the tropics 
work many changes in the soft-eyed daughters 
south of the fifteenth degree of latitude. 
I once read a story by Pierre Loti, a sad and 
haunting story of how he sought, after years of 
absence, to find an old-time sweetheart in Stamboul. 
Ten Years After 
He didn’t find her and he should be grateful for 
his failure. 
I found Victoria. She recognized me at once, al¬ 
though I hardly knew in her the slender, pretty 
Victoria of old. Her eyes were soft and nice, but 
smallpox had pitted her nose and cheeks and the 
deadly incubus of flesh had upholstered her in many 
soft and cushiony folds. I asked her if she had 
married and she said she never had, which informa- 
