Mr J.L.B. Matekoni was pleasantly surprised by the price. He had just replaced the coolant unit on a customer's van and this, he noticed, was the same price, down to the last pula. It was not expensive. Reaching into his pocket, he took out the wad of notes which he had drawn from the bank earlier that morning and paid the jeweller.

"One thing I must ask you," Mr J.L.B. Matekoni said to the jeweller. "Is this diamond a Botswana diamond?"

The jeweller looked at him curiously.

"Why are you interested in that?" he asked. "A diamond is a diamond wherever it comes from."

"I know that," said Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. "But I would like to think that my wife will be wearing one of our own stones."

The jeweller smiled. "In that case, yes, it is. All these stones are stones from our own mines."

"Thank you," said Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. "I am happy to hear that."

THEY DROVE back from the jeweller's shop, past the Anglican Cathedral and the Princess Marina Hospital. As they passed the Cathedral, Mma Ramotswe said: "I think that perhaps we should get married there. Perhaps we can get Bishop Makhulu himself to marry us."

"I would like that," said Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. "He is a good man, the Bishop."

"Then a good man will be conducting the wedding of a good man," said Mma Ramotswe. "You are a kind man, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni."

Mr J.L.B. Matekoni said nothing. It was not easy to respond to a compliment, particularly when one felt that the compliment was undeserved. He did not think that he was a particularly good man. There were many faults in his character, he thought, and if anyone was good, it was Mma Ramotswe. She was far better than he was. He was just a mechanic who tried his best; she was far more than that.

They turned down Zebra Drive and drove into the short drive in front of Mma Ramotswe's house, bringing the car to a halt under the shade-netting at the side of her verandah. Rose, Mma Ramotswe's maid, looked out of the kitchen window and waved to them. She had done the day's laundry and it was hanging out on the line, white against the red-brown earth and blue sky.