ily, nephew," went on Tant' Plessis. "His
grandson, perhaps? You must be of his family if you have his name.
Well, follow in his footsteps--though to be sure there could not be such
a good and great man as Calvinus. He burnt ever so many Roman
Catholics. I've heard Mynheer say so; and if he does not know, who
does?"

This was too much. Aletta fairly broke down, and, striving to flee from
the room in blind precipitation, was brought up in the doorway by the
stalwart and substantial proportions of her father, who was entering,
and against whom she collided violently.

"So--so! What fun is on now?" cried Stephanus, at once infected by her
mirth. "Aletta, you are a very wicked little girl. You are always
laughing. Only wicked little girls always laugh, and at their elders
too, I believe. What is it, Tanta? You have been amusing the child?"

This was carrying the war into the enemy's camp with a vengeance.

"_Nee_--_nee_! I have not been amusing anybody," replied the old lady
very testily. "I do not know what girls are coming to in these days--
jabbering nothing but English--a tongue only fit for baboons--and
laughing at their elders."

"Softly, softly, Tanta. There is an Englishman here!" expostulated
Stephanus, with a wink at Colvin.

"_Ja_, I know there is," was the still more testy reply. "But he is not
like other Englishmen. His name is Calvin. He is of the family of that
good man Calvinus, who burnt ever so many Roman Catholics. He did. Ask
Mynheer if he did not. I have heard him say so ever so many times, both
in church and out. And he ought to know. I have been telling this
Englishman I hoped he would ever remember his grandfather's example."

"Let the joke stand, Stephanus," said Colvin in an undertone. "It's
about the very best I've heard for such a long time."

But the next utterance put forward by this weird old party was destined
to prove somewhat less amusing--to the object thereof, at any rate.

"When is this Englishman going to marry Wenlock's sister?" she blared
out, during an interval of profound silence, and talking sublimely past
the object of the remark. "When is it to be, Gertruida?"

Poor Mrs De la Rey grew red with confusion.

"What are you saying, Tanta?" she stammered.

"What am I saying? Why, he is engaged to her. Several people have told
me. Of course he is. She is the only English girl here, and he is the
only Englishman. So of course they are engaged. T