A room at the back was given up to the Delft china, but even this was spoilt by ordinary yellow arabesque wall-paper, on which were hung the rare plates and dishes, and by some gaudy window curtains, evidently recently added.

The collection itself, made by Mrs.Koopman at very moderate prices, before experts bought up all the Dutch relics, was then supposed to be of great value.

Our hostess conversed in good English with a foreign accent, and was evidently a person of much intelligence and culture.

She had been, and still was, a factor in Cape politics, formerly as a great admirer of Mr.Rhodes, but after 1896 as one of his bitterest opponents, who used all her considerable influence--her house being a meeting-place for the Bond party--against him and his schemes.

We had, in fact, been told she held a sort of political salon, though hardly in the same way we think of it in England as connected with Lady Palmerston, her guests being entirely confined to one party--viz., the Dutch.