t--
although I am a thorough patriot. This one is of the better sort--you
can tell directly you see him, and you can hear it directly he opens his
mouth. Oh _yes_, I've seen lots of them. Yes, I shall go and talk to
him."

Away she went, singing to herself. Her mother could see her through the
window, stopping here and there to pick a flower or train up a drooping
bough. Colvin did not seem aware of her approach. His head was bent
down, and he seemed to be filling a pipe.

"Gertruida!"

Mrs De la Rey turned with a start.

"What is it, Tanta?"

"Where has the girl gone?"

"Who? Aletta?"

"Who? Aletta? What other girl has just gone out, I would like to
know?" snapped Tant' Plessis, bringing down her stick hard upon the
floor. "Where has she gone?"

"Gone? Only to look at the garden after the rain," answered poor Mrs
De la Rey, somewhat guiltily.

"Now you are lying, Gertruida," rapped out the old woman. "Ah, if I
could only give you the _strop_ again as I used to do when you were a
child!" shaking her stick viciously. "You, a mother of a grown-up
family, to lie like that. Really you are a case to bring before Mynheer
and the Kerkraad [Church Council]. You know perfectly well that that
girl has gone out to flirt with the Englishman."

"She has not, Tant' Plessis. You have no right to say such things,"
retorted Mrs De la Rey, stung to momentary wrath. "It is you who are
saying what is not true about my child."

"_Stil, stil_! So that is the result of all the _strop_ I used to give
you, Gertruida--to call your elders liars! You think I know no English.
I do, although I would sooner die than speak the accursed tongue. I
heard Aletta say she was going out to flirt with the Englishman."

"She didn't say `flirt,' Tanta. She said `talk.'"

"Well, well! What is the difference, I would like to know? To go out
like that--to go up to a man and talk with him all alone in a garden!
So that is the result of sending her to learn English ways. English
ways, indeed! No wonder the English were made, like the heathen of old,
to fall before the rifles of the Patriots. They were. I have heard
Mynheer say so, and if he doesn't know, who does?"

"I don't care what Mynheer says--or thinks, Tanta. I shall bring up my
children in my own way," flashed out Mrs De la Rey, losing patience.

"In the devil's own way you mean, Gertruida," said the other, waxing
very portentous and solemn. "Look at my own ch