Olive Schreiner was once upon terms of great friendship with Mr.Rhodes, who extremely admired her great talents.

She was an ardent Afrikander patriot, Dutch by sympathy and origin, gifted with singular intelligence and possessed of wide views, which strongly appealed to the soul and to the spirit of the man who at that time was considered as the greatest figure in South Africa.
It is not remarkable, therefore, that Rhodes should fall into the habit of confiding in Miss Schreiner, whom he found was "miles above" the people about him.

He used to hold long conversations with her and to initiate her into many of his plans for the future, plans in which the interests and the welfare of the Cape Dutch, as well as the Transvaalers, used always to play the principal part.

His friendship with her, however, was viewed with great displeasure by many who held watch around him.
Circumstances--intentionally brought about, some maintain--conspired to cause a cooling of the friendship between the two most remarkable personalities in South Africa.

Later on, Miss Schreiner, who was an ardent patriot, having discovered what she termed and considered to be the duplicity of the man in whom she had so absolutely trusted, refused to meet Cecil Rhodes again.