This worker, named Moses, comes to be a very important person in Mary's life, when he is taken to be a servant for the house. Her hatred of natives results in her whipping the face of a worker because he speaks to her in English, telling her he stopped work for a drink of water. She works them harder, reduces their break time, and arbitrarily takes money from their pay. When Mary oversees the farm labor she is much more repressive than Dick had ever been. Mary is cross, queenly, and overtly hostile to the many house servants she has over the years. She shows contempt for the natives, and finds them disgusting and animal-like. She treats herself as their master and superior. While Dick is rarely cruel to the workers that work for them, Mary is quite cruel. Dick and Mary both often complain about the lack of work ethic among the natives that work on their farm. Mary, like most Rhodesian women, is overtly racist, believing that whites should be masters over the native blacks. Mary feels an intimate connection with the nature around her, though being in general rather unexplorative in nature. They do not attend social events, yet are a great topic of interest among their neighbors. Because of their poverty Dick refuses to bear Mary a child. Mary and Dick live a solitary life together. To Mary, the farm exists only to make money, while Dick goes about farming in a more idealistic way. When Dick gets sick Mary takes over the management of the farm and rages at the incompetence of her husband's farm practice. Dick and Mary live together an apolitical life mired by poverty and lack of money. Dick and Mary are somewhat cold and distant from each other, but are committed to their marriage. She moves with him to his farm and supports the house, while Dick manages the labor of the farm. The man she marries, after a brief courtship, Dick Turner, is a white farmer struggling to make his farm profitable. Nevertheless, after overhearing an insulting remark at a party about her spinsterhood, she resolves to marry. She has a nice job, numerous friends, and values her independence. Mary has a happy and satisfied life as a single white Rhodesian woman.