’But there are a good many Germans there, aren’t there?  What if they invite the German Government to interfere?’

’I don’t fancy that’s probable.  The German colonist isn’t over fond of German rule.  You see the first thing a German official wants to do when he catches sight of a black, is to drill him.  It’s his first and often his last idea.  He wants to see him holding the palm of his hand against the stripe of an invisible trouser, and the system doesn’t work, because the black clears over the nearest border.’

Fielding laughed and turned to the object of his visit.  ’Talking of Matanga, what in the world made you tell Miss Le Mesurier about Gorley?’

Drake looked up from his map.  ’How did you know anything about Gorley?’ he asked.

’Mrs. Willoughby told me.  I thought it was decided Miss Le Mesurier should not be told.’

’Mr. Le Mesurier left the choice to me, and it seemed to me that she had a right to know.’

‘Why?’

Drake paused for a second in reflection.  ‘It seemed to me—­’ he began again.

‘Well, she hadn’t,’ snapped Fielding.

‘Well, I think she had,’ answered Drake quietly, returning to his map.

’Then you were wrong; she hadn’t.  The engagement was broken off a long while ago, and you hadn’t a right to tell her unless you want to marry her yourself.’

Drake raised his head with a jerk and stared at the wall in front of him fixedly.  He made no answer, nor could Fielding distinguish upon his face any expression which gave a clue to his thoughts.  He got up from his chair, and Drake turned to him.  ‘I gather from your tone,’ he said in an indifferent voice, ‘that Mrs. Willoughby resents my action.’

‘My dear fellow, no,’ exclaimed Fielding energetically.  ’For Heaven’s sake, don’t take me for a reflex of Mrs. Willoughby!’

No more plotting for him, he determined.  He had planned and calculated and interfered, all for other people’s good, and this was the thanks he got; to be quietly informed that he hadn’t an idea of his own.

The next afternoon Mrs. Willoughby stopped her phaeton beside him in Bond Street.  She looked very well, he thought, with her clear complexion,—­clear as those clear eyes of hers with just the hint of azure in the whites of them—­wind-whipped now to a rosy warmth.

‘May I congratulate you yet?’ she asked pleasantly.

Fielding was not to be provoked to renew the combat, and he put the question aside.  ’You remember what you told me the other day about Gorley,’ he said.

‘Yes,’ she answered, becoming serious.

‘Well, Miss Le Mesurier knows.’

‘Who told her?’ and she leaned forward.

‘Guess.’

Mrs. Willoughby thought for a moment and then shook her head.  ’I can’t.  Her father?’

‘No; Drake himself.’

She started back in her seat.  Then she said, ’Of course, we might have known that he would,’ and the ‘we’ sealed their reconciliation.