“Then why can’t you hold your tongue instead of saying silly things which must give pain?” asked the vrouw. “No, don’t answer, for you will only make matters worse; but take the rest of that meat to the poor Hottentot, Hans”—I should explain that we had been supping—“who, although he has eaten enough to burst any white stomach, I dare say can manage another pound or two.”
Meyer obeyed meekly, and the others melted away also as they were wont to do when the vrouw showed signs of war, so that she and we two were left alone.
“Now,” said the vrouw, “everyone is tired, and I say that it is time to go to rest. Good night, nephew Allan and niece Marie,” and she waddled away leaving us together.
“Husband,” said Marie presently, “will you come and see the home that I made ready for you before I thought that you were dead? It is a poor place, but I pray God that we may be happy there,” and she took me by the hand and kissed me once and twice and thrice.
About noon on the following day, when my wife and I were laughing and arguing over some little domestic detail of our meagre establishment—so soon are great griefs forgotten in an overwhelming joy, of a sudden I saw her face change, and asked what was the matter.
“Hist!” she said, “I hear horses,” and she pointed in a certain direction.
I looked, and there, round the corner of the hill, came a body of Boers with their after-riders, thirty-two or three of them in all, of whom twenty were white men.
“See,” said Marie, “my father is among them, and my cousin Hernan rides at his side.”
It was true. There was Henri Marais, and just behind him, talking into his ear, rode Hernan Pereira. I remember that the two of them reminded me of a tale I had read about a man who was cursed with an evil genius that drew him to some dreadful doom in spite of the promptings of his better nature. The thin, worn, wild-eyed Marais, and the rich-faced, carnal Pereira whispering slyly into his ear; they were exact types of that man in the story and his evil genius who dragged him down to hell. Prompted by some impulse, I threw my arms round Marie and embraced her, saying:
“At least we have been very happy for a while.”