Neither man had
given much heed to the gathering social conflict on the Rand until
the storm burst about them. There had been a few paragraphs in the
papers about a dispute upon a point of labour etiquette, a question
of the recognition of Trade Union officials, a thing that impressed
them both as technical, and then suddenly a long incubated quarrel
flared out in rioting and violence, the burning of houses and
furniture, attacks on mines, attempts to dynamite trains. White
stayed in Johannesburg because he did not want to be stranded up
country by the railway strike that was among the possibilities of
the situation. Benham stayed because he was going to London very
reluctantly, and he was glad of this justification for a few days'
delay. The two men found themselves occupying adjacent tables in
the Sherborough Hotel, and White was the first to recognize the
other. They came together with a warmth and readiness of intimacy
that neither would have displayed in London.
White had not seen Benham since the social days of Amanda at
Lancaster Gate, and he was astonished at the change a few years had
made in him.
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