"Any one can," he asserted. "It's merely a matter of analysing motives." "No." She shook her head. "I know that admittedly there are two sides to every question; but each side sees inevitably its own point of view; occasionally one may obtain an imperfect view of the other side; but it is given only to the largest vision to see both sides clearly. The wider vision lights the path to a more complete understanding. I wish I possessed it." "Are you so sure you don't?" he asked, and took her chin between his fingers and turned her face towards his and held it for a while. "They see a long way, those wise brown eyes. Some one once tried to make me see into the heart of Africa... You penetrate deeper than that--you see into the heart of humanity; and there you have the key to everything." Matheson did not speak of the other change in his plans which the meeting with Nel had brought about Brenda still supposed he was going to Johannesburg; and he allowed her to think that. But he felt some embarrassment when she asked him to send her word of his arrival, and a telegram to let her know when to expect him back. "If I miss writing on my arrival," he said, and felt mean at the equivocation, "I'll wire you news of my return. It will be such a hurried affair, I doubt whether there will be much time for writing--and none for receiving any reply from you. I'll get back as soon as I can." "I'll be there at the station to meet you," she said. "Well, of course." He experienced a new tenderness for her, a sort of protective love, unlike any other emotion he had felt, as he sat beside her on the tiny ill-kept stoep and talked fragmentally of unimportant things in a determined effort to steer wide of the tragic doings of the times, and to avoid further discussion of his own immediate plans. It afforded him pleasure to reflect that shortly they would be married; that when all this business of fighting was over they would have a home of their own, and this dear girl chum would be his wife and daily companion. He put his arm about her shoulders with an unwonted display of affection that caused her a thrill of shy pleasure. She never invited his caresses; they were the more precious on account of their rareness. "You're such a chum," he said. "I think I'm a very lucky fellow to have secured so dear a comrade to march by my side through life." "That's all I ask to be, your comrade through life," she said, and looked up at him with big worshipful eyes, secure in the knowledge that comradeship is the surest foundation upon which to base a successful marriage. The union thus founded is more assured of continuing happiness than a marriage between unequals as the result of physical attraction. Passionate love has its limitations; but comradeship, which is born of a perfect understanding, strengthens with the years.