il, by the newspapers aforesaid. Nay,
more, she was even heretical enough to wonder whether if that
personality, with all its shrewd intelligence, had been on the English
side, ample tribute would not have been paid even to the outward aspect
of the man--so far only described to be held up to repulsion and
ridicule--the strong face, the impassive reticence, wherein alone lay a
world of diplomatic might--the long stern record of pioneer,
_voortrekker_, leader of men; the opening up of wild uncivilised lands--
bearing a man's part in wresting the wilderness from the inheritance of
savagery to render it the heritage of posterity, and the unwavering
fixity of purpose wherewith he had devoted every energy to preserving it
for his own people and their children's children. If her sojourn in
Cape Town had been a liberal education to Aletta, truly Pretoria
constituted a worthy continuation of the same.

"Now look at that, Piet," she said, a day or two after her arrival,
exhibiting an excellent portrait of her _fiance_. "Didn't I tell you
there were Englishmen _and_ Englishmen. Now, this one is not like the
rest. Is he?"

"No. I don't know that he is," replied Piet Plessis, scanning the
likeness intently. But to himself he was saying, "_So_! I must have a
few inquiries made. I have seen that worthy before. Oh yes, I have."
But to her, "So he has been a neighbour of yours the last year or so,
Aletta?"

"Yes. He was already settled down on his own place some time before I
came home."

"Was he? Never went off it, I suppose?"

"No"--wonderingly. "He has been there since he came back from Rhodesia,
he and Frank Wenlock together. At least, he was looking out for a farm
at first, while he was staying with the Wenlocks. Then he got one and
hasn't been off it since."

"Not?"

"No--except to go into Schalkburg now and then, or to come and see us."

"Oh yes. To come and see you?" rejoined Piet, jocosely. "Hasn't been
up here at all of late, eh?"

"He has been up here before, but not lately, not within the last year.
I think longer, because he served through the Matabele rising. But he
was up in Rhodesia some little while after that."

"Was he? Oh yes," said the diplomatic Piet, in a tone as though by now
only politely interested in the subject. But the while he was, to all
outward appearances, turning the photograph round and round listlessly,
but in reality scrutinising it keenly, now obliquely from the top