Poppy

n dress, which afforded a fine display of roses trellised on a bright blue background, and gave

ked yet, for graci

Bring the tea ov

o heaven, and yet seemed to have grown too short for her, since s

been doing, in the n

it out and come and sit by me here..

ing her fat, yellow hands with extraordinary delicacy. Afterwards she sat

Durban, Kykie?... How l

nt, waggling her shoulder

... men working in the garden day and night, for it was a wi

now; I should thin

as a thank yo

appreciates all you do. He has often said to me w

s, but having passed the tea, sh

ttering me up t

cook for him. Abroad he used to eat frightfully litt

nd dropsical face, and every t

t then I don't suppose they know how to

course," said Poppy sm

ie's face be

h, for heavenly goodness?" she

ts of strange-looking people-especially France and Italy. I

ke there must be

to be home again and h

d it best abroad in th

smell of the veldt, you know, when it is baking hot and the rain comes fizzling down on it; and the early morning wind, when it has blown across a thousand miles of sun-burnt grass and little stalky, stripy, veldt-flowers and stubby bushes, and smells of the big black patches on the hill-sides where the fires have been, and of the dorn bloems on the banks of the rivers ... and

ayed copper idol representing Africa,

oppy. Where else did

quitoes bit like terriers and followed us as high as we could go; but I couldn't even hate them, Kykie, they were so like the wretches we hav

eep still hill I could close my eyes and pretend that I was on a wild mountain krantz and the hush of the waterfalls all round one was the hush of the tall veldt grasses waving in the wind.... But when I looked, and saw only

were there coloure

was always listening and waiting to hear some Kaffir or Dutch word from their lips ... and th

ell me what time this

ently dressed in navy blue serge and wore a brimmer hat, looked so exactl

e and come back to the far

o another boy, who might have been

py. I think she is the new star at Hammerste

the Kaffir, and made me leave the train at the n

e bread-and-butter and cakes, the girl l

en the world!" said Kykie. "And now you

rsuade Luce to go about here, and m

vehemently. "I can see that he i

g to the house; and I heard the boys saying that he had gone to the Club this a

ers that no one is to come in the front gates; they are to be locked and he will keep

face c

e veldt all round us; but to be shut up in a house and garden-(and with

lugubrious sympathy, bu

before, with your music, and your reading,

ny longer. Can't you s

-cactus to rub on your breasts any more," said Kyk

ccasion to throw a corner of the qu

d Kykie. "Haven't I watched you many a moonlight nig

she gave a wistful little

zen times a day to make myself the tiniest atom less ugly than I was. Do you remember that deep part where the

ou could go and look at the s

it was my aunt they were eating. Oh Ky

ed the door and you fell into the house, all blood and mud, and your eyes

Mad-

overed

talk ab

et in an instant, flew from the room at top speed. She came back later to say that Luce

ociable with all the world again, and we shan't be locked up any more," she cried all in one breath. "And now you needn't both

graciou

nd satins of every shade of the rainbow. You

ening to herself, without disturbance, for it was a peculiarity of Kykie's that she could not keep her eyes open after nine o'clock at night. As for the boys, after th

d aggressively if anyone so much as looked at it. Then came a long side-stretch of thick-set green bushes of what she judged-after pinching the leaf and smelling it-to be quince, with an undergrowth of pink pepper. After penetrating this, in a weak spot, and discovering that the outside rampart consisted of galvanised iron, standing lengthways and painted dark green, she did not feel so confident, but she went bravely on, until at last she came to a gate; it also was made of iron and painted green, but though it was unlocked, Poppy did not go through it, for she saw beyond, the stables and iron houses that were evidently the quarters of the black servants. She could hear their voices and the sound of a concertina. Plainly this was the back compound, through which all trades-people must make their way to the house. No doubt there was an entrance at the other side-but it was not for Poppy! She proceeded. The wall continued of the same quality, monotonously familiar; then occurred an impassable jungle that it would have taken a herd of buffalo to make any impression upon. After beating round this for som

aid, "we shall see if you can keep a c

On this tour she included the arbours and the summer-houses in her itinerary. The third one she came to was only a small hut of a place, but it had a long spire to its roof, and from thence trailed and hung long lines and stalks of the passion plant-everyone knows it: vine-leaved, with great round cream-coloured flowers, a purple outer ring divided into ten thousand tiny leaves, signifying the crowd that gathered to listen to Christ on the Mount; and in the centre, mysteriously arranged, like the dish

found

be dropping upon her from above. At last she nerved herself to the point of pushing and urging and disentangling the thick partition of green t

gravelled path; but she did not walk on it, choosing rather to follow its direction by way of the grass and soft earth which enflanked it. In the natural course of events a house was discovered. Quite a simple affair of galvanised iron, painted green, with a verandah running all round it and heaps of sh

ter and everything else in the world. I wish

hrough the screen of a bush covered with tiny pink

. In the midst of all was a good solid mahogany table, with a typewriting-machine on it, and seated before this was a girl. For pity of herself Poppy was glad to see another girl; and more especially a girl who, like herself, appeared to have rea

ed, with big brown eyes, rather inclined to roll, suggestive of what is known as "a dash of colour"; a mouth of the kind that expresses nothing at all until the twenties, when by the aid of a retroussé nose, grown unaccountably coarse it suddenly expresses things which should be left unexp

friend of, thought Poppy, and de

girl may help to pass away an idle hour sometimes, and she might serve as one of the characters in my novel. A

hole, which she covered up with the greatest care and skill, for fear that in the future it s

he meant to level at him when she demanded freedom. In the meantime she was absorbed in affairs which included the inspection and re-arrangement of every room in the house, excepting only Abinger's, which she never ventured near. Touches of her personality soon lay upon everything, from the chintzes in the drawing-room which she had chosen herself at Waring's, and sent out to Kykie for the making, down to the

g poets played them on their harps, but since that fello

s divided between studying literature, writing, dreaming and w

me, she made herself look as charming as possible in a pale maize satin gown w

ell-born in evening-dress. At the sound of Poppy he turned, and the lights shining on his maimed and distorted face, showed her that he was entertaining at least seven devils. A mental shiver passed through her and hope fell several degrees; but she advanced with a serene smile and a gay word. Sh

down at the piano and ran her fingers up and

a good temper, for I want to talk to

roaking sor

essary for you to p-play an Irish melody to have me p

nted; and the gong sounding at this moment, she ro

ng then, we'll talk it

her a sensation of indescribable discomfort and annoyance. Once, for some unknown reason, she found herself remembering how she had covered herself up with the bed quilt from Kykie's eyes, and wishing that she had it round her now. She had never felt like that i

going to do about ge

omething in the nature of a bomb-shell going off under his nose. He did not, however, proceed with the business of peeling his peach, and on giving him

ponsible p-person to have the care of you

pone the discussion; but then, sometimes these fits of fury and ru

ngers in the fine Venetian bowl before her and drying them delicately. One of Abinger's

hed back his chair from the table with

n, but you forget that I am not

r wrist a little painted inlaid fan which she had bought from a

very hot; I think I will smoke out in the

d lounged in the doorway

finish this inter

yes and sneering with his mouth. Babiyaan, well aware that she was not allowed to smoke, knew

t you to realise that it is impossible for me to go on living like this for ever. It isn't fair...."

s only natural that I should wish

e laughed

rag in t

as ridiculous of him to pretend th

o spend my youth in secrecy and seclusion

because you happen to have a face like a mutilat

on't think," she went on appealingly, "that I don't appreciate all you have done for me. I remember it every day and every night.... I shall never forget it ... and though I know I can never repay you, I will show yo

r. "You are mistaken; I have no friends. The wh

" she pursued valiantly; "if you get

.. They are d-devils all-lock, stock and barrel.... They'll rip you open and tear the story of your life out of you; if they once find out that you are a South African they'll never re

believe they're as

he utmost rudeness. "But understand one thin

evils," she flung back at hi

the other door, gesturing with rage, an

. don't ever talk to me about this again ... I tell you.... It's monstrous ... a lot of thieves and blackg

ed with a cra