tilted sickeningly, the man, ashen-faced and
strung, leaped from it and was whirled away.

"The water took him under, drew him gasping over the
bottom, and spat him up again to swim desperately. His head
was down-stream, and, as there was a sharp bend half a mile
below, he had no extraordinary difficulty in bringing his
carcass to shore. He lay for a minute among the bushes, and
then ran back to see what had become of the cart, the
horses, and his wife. He found them ashore, safe and
waiting for him, and Anna wringing the wet from her hair as
she stood beside the horses' heads.

"'You are not hurt?' she asked, before he could speak. Her
face was grave and flushed, her voice very quiet and
orderly.

"'No.' he said.

"'Ah!' she said, and climbed again into the cart, and made
room for him in the place of the driver.

"That was how he discovered himself to his wife. In that
one event of their wedding-day he revealed to Anna what was
a secret from all the world--perhaps even from himself. He
was a coward, the thing Anna had never known yet of any
man--never thought enough upon to learn how little it may
really matter or how greatly it may ruin a character. When
her brothers, having drunk too much at a waapenschauw,
wished to make a quarrel quickly, they called their man a
coward. But for her it had been like saying he was a devil--
a futile thing that was only offensive by reason of its
intention. And now she was married to a coward, and must
learn the ways of it.

"They spoke no more of the matter. Anna shrank from a
reference to it. She could not find a word to fit the
subject that did not seem an attack on the man with whom
she must spend her life. They settled down to their
business of living together very quietly, and I think the
commandant's daughter did no braver thing than when she
recognized the void in her husband, and then, holding it
loathsome and unforgivable, passed it over and put it from
her mind out of mere loyalty to him.

"The years went past at their usual pace, and there
occurred nothing to ear-mark any hour and make it
memorable, till the Kafirs across the Tiger River rose. I
do not remember what men said the rising was about.
Probably their chief was wearied with peace and drunkenness
and wanted change; but anyhow the commando that was called
out to go and shoot the tribe into order included Andreas,
the respected Burgher and famous shot. The feldkornet rode
round and left the summons a