Mafeking Road by Herman Charles Bosman Page B

documents in front of him, talking about the advantages of being insured, he drew lots of small circles on the blotting-paper.

    I was going by mule-cart to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and on my way I had stopped at Piet Venter’s house for a cup of coffee, and to ask him if there was anything I could order for him from the Indian store at Ramoutsa. But he said there wasn’t.
    â€œWhat about a drum of cattle-dip?” I hinted, remembering that Piet still owed me five gallons of dip.
    â€œNo,” he answered. “I don’t need cattle-dip now.”
    â€œPerhaps I can order you a few rolls of barbed wire,” I suggested. This time I was thinking of the wire he had borrowed from me for his new sheep-camp.
    â€œNo, thank you,” he said politely, “I don’t need barbed wire, either.”
    Piet Venter was funny, that way.
    I was on the point of leaving, when Johnny de Clerk came in, very smart in his blue suit and his light felt hat and his pointed shoes. He introduced himself, and we all sat down and chatted very affably for a while. Afterwards Johnny took out a number of insurance forms, and said things to Piet Venter about a thousand pound policy, speaking very fast. From the way Johnny de Clerk kept on looking sideways at me, while he talked, I gathered that my presence was disturbing him, and that he couldn’t talk his best while there was a third party listening.
    So I lit my pipe and stayed longer.
    I noticed that Lenie kept flitting in and out of the voorkamer, with bright eyes and red cheeks. I also noticed that, soon after Johnny de Clerk’s arrival, she had gone into the bedroom for a
few minutes and had come out wearing a new pink frock. Lenie was pretty enough to make any man feel flattered if he knew that she had gone into the bedroom and put on a new pink frock just because he was there. She had dark hair and dark eyes, and when she smiled you could see that her teeth were very white.
    Her sudden interest in this young insurance agent struck me as being all the more singular, because everybody in the Marico knew that Lenie was being courted by Gert Oosthuizen.
    But it seemed that Johnny de Clerk had not noticed Lenie’s blushes and her new frock. He appeared very unobservant about these things. It did not seem right that a young girl’s efforts at attracting a man should be wasted in that fashion. That was another reason why I went on sitting there while the insurance agent talked to Piet Venter. I even went so far as to cough, once or twice, when Johnny de Clerk mentioned the amount of the policy that he thought Piet Venter should take out.
    When he had filled the whole sheet of blotting-paper with small circles, Johnny de Clerk stopped talking and put the printed documents in order.
    â€œI have proved to you why you should be insured for a thousand pounds, Oom Piet,” he said, “so just sign your name here.”
    Piet Venter shook his head.
    â€œOh no,” he replied, “I don’t want to.”
    â€œBut you must,” Johnny de Clerk went on, waving his hand towards Lenie, without looking up, “for the sake of your wife, here, you must.”

    â€œThat is not my wife,” Piet Venter replied, “that’s my daughter, Lenie. My wife has gone to Zeerust to visit her sister.”
    â€œWell, then, for the sake of your wife and daughter, Lenie,” Johnny de Clerk said, “and what’s more, I’ve already spent an hour talking to you. If I spend another hour I shall have to insure you for two thousand pounds.”
    Piet Venter got frightened then, and took off his jacket and signed the application form without any more fuss. By the way he passed his hand over his forehead I could see he was pleased to have got out of it so easily. I thought it was very considerate of Johnny de Clerk to have warned him in time. A more dishonest insurance agent, I felt, would just have gone on sitting there for the full two