"My! I would never trust myself in one of those things," Mrs Nel declared emphatically, unconscious that her decision was in her brother-in-law's opinion an argument in favour of the thing she depreciated. "It was never intended that we should rush through the air like that." "And yet there is the railway," Matheson reminded her. "Ach! the railway has its uses. But it does a lot of damage. Do you remember, Cornelius, when a spark from the engine fired your good trucks loaded with forage? And the Government would give no compensation, because no one actually saw the spark that set it alight come from the engine. As though it could have been fired any other way! Ach ne! the railway is no good. The Lord gave us oxen for beasts of burden." "A bit slow in the going, aren't they?" Matheson suggested. "Those who travel slowly travel surely," she answered conclusively. "I would like a car if we could afford one," Honor said. "But nothing is so good as a horse." She looked at Matheson, and added: "We ought to be mounting." He rose promptly, and a general move followed. When he was on his feet Cornelius delivered himself of the weighty reflections which had kept him silent during the recent discussion. "The railway is very well; but it should make full compensation for all loss. The railway is controlled by the government; the government is controlled by the capitalists. That is not good, no!" "The landowner is something of a capitalist himself," Herman Nel put in drily. His brother bent on him a look of heavy displeasure. "The landowner in the future will represent the power of this country," he said, and closed the argument by lighting his pipe. Every one accompanied the visitors outside, and watched them mount and ride away. Herman Nel assisted Honor to the saddle, and while he remained with his hand on the rein he looked up at her and said quietly: "Carry my love to Freidja." He did not seem to expect an answer, for he stepped back as he spoke; and Honor made no response, only when the other adieux were spoken and the horses started, she looked back at the man standing apart from the rest and smiled at him as she rode away.