We discussed it afterwards in the cabin. My companions did
not, I found, regard the film with the same appreciation as I did myself. They were critical, for instance, of the role played by the doctor who, while pretending to be the friend of the oppressed, obviously took a slow delight in informing his many acquaintances of the disasters which had befallen them. They thought the whole story slightly "un- necessary," which I suppose it was. And their distaste for the heroine knew no bounds. At first I took their lack of any very fervent response to be due to the fact that they were younger than I am and not quite so certain of the vicariousness of the heroism displayed. But on second thoughts I realised that their comparative lack of enthusiasm must be attributed to the circumstance that they, unlike myself, had never been to the Sudan ; and that for them the story of Gordon and Slatin was not a recurrent nightmare, haunting constant dreams.
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