“Come, I will walk back with you.”
“I don’t require your escort,” she said rudely. “I am on my father’s ground.”
Nevertheless, he walked beside her as she moved quickly away.
“Chrissie!” he said quietly. “What has all this trouble about the land and about war to do with you and me?”
She did not answer, only walked faster.
“I am only an employee of the Government,” he continued. “How is it my fault if they take your father’s land?”
“I do not say that it is your fault,” she said. “But it turns you into his enemy—and mine.”
“And yours?” he repeated reproachfully, “I thought you were more just than that!”
“I am the daughter of a Boer.”
“And I am an Englishman. But that does not prevent me from loving you.”