urn out,
you _schepsels_, and take the Baas' horse."

"Wet? I'm nearly dead with cold, Stephanus. So bring along a _soepje_,
old chap, and let's get to a fire and dry myself."

"Dry yourself? It's dry clothes you have to get into. Come this way.
My _volk_ will see to your horse. Here now, what can we get you into?
My things are too wide for you, Cornelis' and Jan's are too small. You
will have to get into some of mine."

And having dragged out of a drawer a complete refit for his guest, whom
he had marched straight into his own room, the genial Dutchman went out
and reappeared in a moment with a decanter of excellent "dop" and
glasses.

"That's grand!" ejaculated Colvin, fortifying himself with a liberal
_soepje_ during the changing process. But not yet was he going to
impart his adventures to his host. The latter had a great laugh over
his attempts to carry off the fit of clothes that were both too long and
too wide.

"Well, no matter," he said. "You are dry, at any rate, and by this time
warm. So come along in and have some supper."

Colvin followed his host into the dining-room. The evening meal was
just over, but already a place had been cleared and laid for him. As he
shook hands with Mrs De la Rey, he noticed a girl--one he did not
recollect ever having seen before. She was just receiving a dish from a
Hottentot servant, and arranging it on the table at the place laid for
him. Then, turning, she came up to him, with outstretched hand, and a
bright smile of cordial welcome on her face.

"Oh, I had forgotten," said Stephanus. "You two have not met before.
Colvin, this is my eldest girl--Aletta."

CHAPTER NINE.

"ONLY A BOER GIRL."

A vision of the portraits flashed through Colvin's mind--the portraits
at which he had so often looked, with but faint interest, representing
as they did a heavy-looking awkward girl, with hunched shoulders, whom
he had set down in his own mind as a mere squat, ugly replica of
Condaas. One of the portraits itself stared him in the face even now,
over and beyond the shoulder of its original. And this was the
original! He saw before him a tall and graceful girl, straight as a
dart. Her head, slightly thrown back, as she greeted him with frank and
self-possessed composure, was beautifully poised, and crowned with a
bounteous coil of silky brown hair. She had lustrous hazel eyes, which
could light up in a wonderful way when animated, and a fresh and
delic