I can't understand it, Mr Courtney. There is nothing I can find wrong

with her apart from her general run-down condition. I think we'll just

have to wait and see, I don't want to give her any more drugs. Sean

knew the man could be of no more help to him and he hardly noticed when

he left with a promise to come again in the morning. Mbejane gave Dirk

his bath, fed him and put him to bed and then he slipped quietly out of

the suite and left Sean alone with Katrina. The afternoon of worry had

tired Sean. He left the gas burning in the sitting-room and stretched

out on his own bed.

After a while he slept.

When the rhythm of Ins breathing changed Katrina looked across at him.

Sean lay fully clothed on top of his blankets, one thickly muscled arm

thrown above his head and his tension betrayed by the twitching of his

lips and the frown that puckered his face. Katrina stood up and moved

across to stand over him, lonely as she had never been in the solitude

of the bush, hurt beyond the limits of physical pain and with everything

that she believed in destroyed in those few minutes that it had taken

for her to discover the truth.

She looked down at Sean and with surprise realized that she still loved

him, but now the security that she had found with him was gone. The

walls of her castle had proved paper. She had felt the first cold

draughts blowing in through them as she watched him reliving his past

and regretting it. She had felt the walls tremble and the wind howl

stronger outside when he danced with that woman - then, they had

collapsed into rain around her. Standing in the half-darkened room,

watching the man she trusted so completely and who just as completely

had betrayed her, she went carefully over the ground again to make sure

there was no mistake.

That morning, she and Dirk had stopped at the sweet shop on the way back

from church. It was almost opposite the hotel. it had taken Dirk a

long time to select his tuppenny worth.

The profusion of wares on display unmanned him and reduced him to a

state of dithering indecision. Finally, with the assistance of the

proprietor and a little prompting from Katrina his purchases were made

and packed into a brown paper bag. They were just about to go when

Katrina looked out through the large front window of the shop and saw

Candy Rautenbach leaving the hotel. She came quickly down the front

steps, glanced about her, crossed the street to a waiting carriage and

her coachman whisked her away. Katrina had stopped the instant she

caught sight of her. A pang of last night's jealousy returned, for

Candy looked very lovely even in the morning sunlight. It was not until

Candy's carriage disappeared that Katrina began to question her presence

at their hotel at eleven o'clock on a Sunday morning. Her jealousy was

a bayonet thrust up under her ribs: it made her catch her breath.

Vividly she remembered Candy's whispered question as they left the

Golden Guinea the previous night. She remembered the way Sean had

answered and the way he had lied about it afterwards.

Sean knew that Katrina would go to church that morning.

How simple it all was! Sean had arranged to meet her, he had refused to

accompany Katrina and while Katrina was out of the way that harlot had

gone to him.Mummy, you're hurting me. Unconsciously she had tightened

her grip on Dirk's hand. She hurried out of the shop, dragging Dirk

with her. She almost ran across the hotel lobby, up the stairs and

along the passage. The door was closed. She opened it and the smell of

Candy's perfume met her.

Her nostrils flared at it. There was no mistaking it, she remembered it

from the previous evening the smell of fresh violets. She heard Sean

call from the bathroom, Dirk ran across the room and hammered on the

door. Daddy! Daddy! Mummy got sweets for me. She put her Bible down

on top of the writing desk and moved across the thick carpet with the

smell of violets all around her. She stood in the doorway of the

bedroom.

Sean's nightshirt lay on the floor, there were still damp stains on it.

She felt her legs begin to tremble. She looked up and saw the stains on

the bed, grey on the white sheets.

She felt giddy, her cheeks burned; she only just managed to reach her

own bed.

She knew there was no mistake. Sean had taken that woman in such a

casually blatant manner, in their own bedroom, almost before her eyes,

that his rejection of her could hardly have been more final if he had

slapped her face and thrown her into the street. Weakened by fever,

depressed by the loss of her child and the phase of her cycle, she had

not the resilience to fight against it. She had loved him but she had

proved insufficient for him.

She could not stay with him: the stubborn pride of her race would not

allow it. There was only one alternative.

Timidly she bent over him and as she kissed him she smelt the warm

man-smell of his body and felt his beard brush her cheek. Her

determination wavered; she wanted to throw herself across his chest,

lock her arms around his neck and plead with him. She wanted to ask for

another chance. If he could tell her how she had failed him she could

try to change, if only he could show her what she had done wrong.

Perhaps if they went back into the bush again, She dragged herself away

from his bed. She pressed her knuckles hard against her lips. It was

no use. He had decided and even if she begged him to take her back

there would always be this thing between them. She had lived in a

castle and she would not change it now for a mud hut. Driven by the

trek whip of her pride she moved quickly across to the wardrobe. She

put on a coat and buttoned it, it reached to her ankles and covered her

nightdress; she spread the green shawl over her head, winding the loose

end around her throat. once more she looked across at Sean. He slept

with his big body sprawled and the frown still on his face.