  We pursue the intriguing possibility that larger-size instantons build up
diffractive scattering, with the marked instanton-size scale $<\rho> \approx
0.5$ fm being reflected in the conspicuous ``geometrization'' of soft QCD. As
an explicit illustration, the known instanton contribution to DIS is
transformed into the intuitive colour dipole picture. With the help of lattice
results, the $q \bar{q}$-dipole size r is carefully increased towards hadronic
dimensions. Unlike pQCD, one now observes a competition between two crucial
length scales: the dipole size r and the size $\rho$ of the background
instanton that is sharply localized around $<\rho> \approx 0.5$ fm. For r
exceeding $<\rho>$, the dipole cross section indeed saturates towards a
geometrical limit, proportional to the area $\pi <\rho>^2$, subtended by the
instanton.
