Elizabeth was much impressed by the gallery and spoke enthusiastically of it during lunch at Government House afterwards. Stephen had been placed on her left, with Robert Tredgold on her right. Government House was a white colonnaded mansion, decorated and furnished in a way that made Versailles seem ordinary. Life-sized portraits of past British monarchs gazed down on thick carpets, silken chairs and a long table laden with silver, crystal, fine china and great vases of gladioli and dahlias. The women wore print dresses and floppy hats and the men, tropical suits. The servants were dressed in white with green sashes, cummerbunds and fezzes. The green was trimmed with gold according to their rank.

‘The senior servants look exactly like wrapped Christmas presents, don’t you think?’ Elizabeth laughed. The Governor had supplied a generous amount of champagne and she was drinking plentifully, though she did not show it. Her spine stayed straight as a poker and inches from the back of her chair.

They ate tomato soup and roast beef with all the trimmings and spoke about her tour of the Federation. She said that her overriding impression was of a land of contrasts. She had seen Matabele warriors perched in a panoply of war garments, high on the granite hills of the Matapos, to give the signal of her arrival for the indaba for chiefs. The great cry of ‘Bayete,’ the Royal Greeting, had rung out for her as it rang for Lobengula, last of the Matabele kings. She found this deeply moving. She had inspected modern soldiers, African and European alike. She had watched African children, wearing skins and feather headdresses, mime with zest and considerable realism the witch doctor and a lion hunt, and just afterwards, she had seen the same children performing old English folk dances like ‘Gathering Peascods’ and ‘Sellinger’s Round’. She had met African chiefs and was impressed by their courtesy and dignity.

She also spoke of the Victoria Falls, ‘The most breathtaking sight in Africa,’ and the Kariba Dam, which they agreed was astonishing.

‘Have you told Stephen about your unscheduled visit to the townships?’ Robert asked her.

‘I’d far rather you told him,’ she replied.

‘Very well, Ma’am.’ Robert smiled and gave a tiny shrug. ‘Yesterday, Her Majesty refused to accept the advice of the security forces, who were apprehensive in case there was a demonstration by the Nationalists, and she drove through the African townships. Again, against their advice, she insisted on leaving the car and visiting some of the homes unannounced.’