He named the homely parasite hymned by Burns ...
—"'Or he packs me up to Oom Paul at Pretoria, chained to the waggon-tail like the others.' ..."
Lady Hannah wondered, while the stuffy room spun round her, who the others were.
"Geen, I will tell you what he does." He pitched the crumpled transformation contemptuously into the corner. "He writes to the Engelsch Commandant at Gueldersdorp and says: 'I have here a silly female thing that is no use to me. Take her you, and give me in exchange a man of mine.' ..."
"And he ... what does ...?" She could get out nothing more.
"He agrees. Mevrouw Vrynks"—"Dutch for Wrynche," thought Lady Hannah dizzily—"you will now pay the Mevrouw Kink what is owing for her amiable entertainment, and you will start for Gueldersdorp in ten minutes' time."
The roaring voice of the stern, fierce-eyed man, sounded lovelier than the swan-song of De Rezke. She faltered, with her joyful heart leaping at the gates of utterance:
"The—mare and spider. You will be so kind as to return them——?"
His face became as a human countenance rudely carved in seasoned oak.
"I know nothing of a mare and spider," blared the great voice.