Miss Manners replied that she would not be dictated to; she was her own mistress and meant to remain so.

Mr.Scroope exclaimed that she might so far as he was concerned.

She answered that she never wished to see his face again.
He declared with emphasis that she never should and that he was going to Africa to shoot elephants.
What is more, he went, starting from his Essex home the next day without leaving any address.

As it transpired afterwards, long afterwards, had he waited till the post came in he would have received a letter that might have changed his plans.

But they were high-spirited young people, both of them, and played the fool after the fashion of those in love.
Well, Charles Scroope turned up in Durban, which was but a poor place then, and there we met in the bar of the Royal Hotel.
"If you want to kill big game," I heard some one say, who it was I really forget, "there's the man to show you how to do it--Hunter Quatermain; the best shot in Africa and one of the finest fellows, too." I sat still, smoking my pipe and pretending to hear nothing.