"He bade her good-night, tenderly.
"'Good-night,' she answered, 'and, John—I would that I could give you half of what you would have given for me.'
"As he went out at the door he saw her face smiling at him, with a great warmth of love and pity transfiguring it.
"'Nest morning, when the doctor came, he stayed near an hour in her room, and then came to the Predikant.
"'Just tell me,' he said to him,—'just tell me straight and short, what you did to your wife last night.'
"The Predikant told him in a few words what had passed between them, while the doctor watched him and curled his lip.
"'Exactly,' he said, when the Predikant had done. 'Quite what I should have guarded against in you. Now you may go to your wife as quickly as you like. She is dying!'
"It was so. She died in his arms in half an hour, with the little smile of baffled motherhood yet on her lips."
Katje clenched her hands and looked out to the veld in silence.