s. I hope that
you won't let John quite drive me out of your head, that's all, for you
see, my dear, having no children of my own, I have managed to grow very
fond of you in the last twelve years or so."

Bessie kissed the old man tenderly.

"No, uncle," she answered, "neither John nor anybody nor anything in the
world can do that," and it was evident from her manner that she meant
what she said. Bessie had a large heart, and was not at all the person
to let her lover drive her uncle and benefactor out of his share
thereof.

CHAPTER XIV

JOHN TO THE RESCUE

The important domestic events described in the last chapter took place
on December 7, 1880, and for the next twelve days or so everything went
as happily at Mooifontein as things should go under the circumstances.
Every day Silas Croft beamed with an enlarged geniality in his
satisfaction at the turn that matters had taken, and every day John
found cause to congratulate himself more and more on the issue of his
bold venture towards matrimony. Now that he came to be on such intimate
terms with his betrothed, he perceived a hundred charms and graces
in her nature which before he had never suspected. Bessie was like a
flower: the more she basked in the light and warmth of her love the more
her character opened and unfolded, shedding perfumed sweetness around
her and revealing unguessed charms. It is so with all women, and more
especially with a woman of her stamp, whom Nature has made to love and
be loved as maid and wife and mother. Her undoubted personal beauty
shared also in this development, her fair face taking a richer hue and
her eyes an added depth and meaning. She was in every respect, save one,
all that a man could desire in his wife, and even the exception would
have stood to her credit with many men. It was this: she was not an
intellectual person, although certainly she possessed more than the
ordinary share of intelligence and work-a-day common sense. Now John was
a decidedly intellectual man, and, what is more, he highly appreciated
that rare quality in the other sex. But, after all, when one is just
engaged to a sweet and lovely woman, one does not think much about her
intellect. Those reflections come afterwards.

And so they sauntered hand in hand through the sunny days and were happy
exceedingly. Least of all did they allow the rumours which reached them
from the great Boer gathering at Paarde Kraal to disturb their serenity.
There had bee