"I expect you have been burgeoning mightily since I left London, and I should not be surprised to learn that you have put the _Daily Gazette_ and its kind definitely behind you. You remember our talks? Tut, my dear fellow, Liberalism, Conservatism, Radicalism--it's of not the slightest consequence, and they're all much of a muchness. The thing is to stand to one's duty as a citizen of the Empire, not as a member of this or that little tin coterie; and if we stick honourably to that, nothing else matters. You will like Constance Grey; that is why I have asked her to look you up. She's sterling all through; her father's daughter to the backbone. And he was the man of whom Talbot said: 'Give me two Greys, and'--and a couple of other men he mentioned--'and a free hand, and Whitehall could go to sleep with its head on South Africa, and never be disturbed again.'"--When Crondall quoted his dead chief, the man whose personality had dominated British South Africa, one felt he had said his utmost.--"The principal thing that takes her to London now, I believe, is detail connected with a special series she has been engaged upon for _The Times_; fine stuff, from what I have seen of it. It is marvellous the grip this one little bit of a girl has of South African affairs." "Yes," I thought, now the fact was mentioned, "I suppose she is small." "I hope the articles will be well read, for there's a heap of the vitals of South Africa in them; and even if they are to cut us adrift altogether, it's as well 'The Destroyers' should know a little about us, and the country. Constance Grey's name and introductions will take her anywhere in London, or I would have asked your help in that way." I thought of Clement Blaine's friends, my own Fleet Street circle, and shifted uncomfortably in my chair. "As it is, the boot may be rather on the other leg, and she may be of some service to you. But in any case, I want you to know each other, because you are a good chap, and will interest her, I know; and because she is of the bigger Britain and will interest you. Things political are, of course, looking pretty blue for us all, and your particular friends--I rather hope perhaps they're not so much your friends by now--are certainly doing their level best to cut all moorings. But one must keep pegging away. The more cutting for them, the more splicing for us. But I do wish we could blindfold Europe until these 'Destroyers' had got enough rope, and satisfactorily hanged themselves; for if they go much farther, their hanging will come too late to save the situation. Well, salue!"