That type is not by any means always female, but the women are the most determined on their course, and come the biggest croppers on occasion.
She was determined now, mistress of the situation and of her plans.
She left to her maid the business of quarreling about accommodations; (there was little left to choose from, and all was bare and bad); dismissed the obsequious settler and his porters with perfunctory thanks that left him no excuse for lingering, and came along the veranda straight toward us with the smile of old acquaintance, and such an air of being perfectly at ease that surprise was disarmed, and the rudeness we all three intended died stillborn.
"What do you think of the country ?" she asked.

"Men like it as a rule.
Women detest it, and who can blame them?
No comfort--no manners--no companionship--no meals fit to eat--no amusement! Have you killed anything or anybody yet?
That always amuses a man!" We rose to make room for her and I brought her a chair.

There was nothing else one could do.

There is almost no twilight in that part of East Africa; until dark there is scarcely a hint that the day is waning.

She sat with us for twenty or thirty minutes making small talk, her maid watching us from a window above, until the sun went down with almost the suddenness of gas turned off, and in a moment we could scarcely see one another's faces.
Then came the proprietor to the door, with his best ex-missionary air of knowledge of all earth's ways, their reason and their trend.
"All in!" he called.