suade the Landrost to report him
as a law-breaker to the Raad; while all the time he was pretending to
be so friendly. Then in the Sikukuni war it was Frank Muller who caused
them to commandeer uncle's two best waggons and spans. He gave none
himself, nothing but a couple of bags of meal. He is a wicked fellow,
Bessie, and a dangerous fellow; but he has more brains and more power
about him than any man in the Transvaal, and you will have to be very
careful, or he will do us all a bad turn."

"Ah!" said Bessie; "well, he can't do much now that the country is
English."

"I am not so sure of that. I am not so sure that the country is going
to stop English. You laugh at me for reading the home papers, but I see
things there that make me doubtful. The other party is in power now in
England, and one does not know what they may do; you heard what uncle
said to-night. They might give us up to the Boers. You must remember
that we far-away people are only the counters with which they play their
game."

"Nonsense, Jess," said Bessie indignantly. "Englishmen are not like
that. When they say a thing, they stick to it."

"They used to, you mean," answered Jess with a shrug, and got up from
her chair to go to bed.

Bessie began to fidget her white feet over one another.

"Stop a bit, Jess dear," she said. "I want to speak to you about
something else."

Jess sat or rather dropped back into her chair, and her pale face turned
paler than ever; but Bessie blushed very red and hesitated.

"It's about Captain Niel," she said at length.

"Oh," answered Jess with a little laugh, and her voice sounded cold and
strange in her own ears. "Has he been following Frank Muller's example,
and proposing to you too?"

"No-o," said Bessie, "but"--and here she rose, and, sitting on a stool
by her elder sister's chair, rested her forehead against her knee--"but
I love him, and I _believe_ that he loves me. This morning he told me
that I was the prettiest woman he had seen at home or abroad, and the
sweetest too; and do you know," she said, looking up and giving a happy
little laugh, "I think he meant it."

"Are you joking, Bessie, or are you really in earnest?"

"In earnest! ah, but that I am, and I am not ashamed to say it. I fell
in love with John Niel when he killed that cock ostrich. He looked so
strong and savage as he fought with it. It is a fine thing to see a man
put out all his strength. And then he is such a gentleman!--so differen