The Cleverness of Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith

Author:Alexander McCall Smith [Smith, Alexander McCall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Anthologies
ISBN: 9780349000282
Amazon: 034900028X
Goodreads: 12625994
Publisher: Abacus
Published: 2012-02-01T18:30:00+00:00

Namaqualand Daisies

1

He was called the Captain, although he did not like the title and had asked people not to use the rank to which he had been briefly entitled because of his service in Hong Kong. That had been in China, and was back then. This was Africa, and this was now, 1956, and he was a plain district officer in Basutoland – nothing special. Just ordinary Mr Andrews. But someone had seen the letter addressed to him as Captain, and it had got about that this was what he was. In colonial society, particularly one tucked away in a mountain kingdom, anything that suggested a rank or a title was welcome. Such places were full of wartime majors and the like, hanging on to what remained of their authority and importance. The Captain was far too young for that; he was barely thirty-five, and his wife was even younger. She had laughed when she first heard him addressed as Captain.

‘It makes you sound like one of those old salts,’ she said. ‘It makes you sound ridiculous.’

‘I didn’t ask anybody to call me that,’ said the Captain. ‘It’s like a nickname, you know. You can’t stop people from calling you by a nickname. You just can’t.’

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