could run me through
with a knife, could you?" cried the Dutchwoman. "I could not drive the
Kaffer maid away because I was afraid of you, was I? Oh, you miserable
rag! I loved you, did I? I would have liked to marry you, would I? would
I? WOULD I?" cried the Boer-woman; "you cat's tail, you dog's paw! Be
near my house tomorrow morning when the sun rises," she gasped, "my
Kaffers will drag you through the sand. They would do it gladly, any of
them, for a bit of tobacco, for all your prayings with them."

"I am bewildered, I am bewildered," said the German, standing before her
and raising his hand to his forehead; "I--I do not understand."

"Ask him, ask him?" cried Tant Sannie, pointing to Bonaparte; "he knows.
You thought he could not make me understand, but he did, he did, you
old fool! I know enough English for that. You be here," shouted the
Dutchwoman, "when the morning star rises, and I will let my Kaffers take
you out and drag you, till there is not one bone left in your old body
that is not broken as fine as bobootie-meat, you old beggar! All your
rags are not worth that--they should be thrown out onto the ash-heap,"
cried the Boer-woman; "but I will have them for my sheep. Not one rotten
hoof of your old mare do you take with you; I will have her--all, all
for my sheep that you have lost, you godless thing!"

The Boer-woman wiped the moisture from her mouth with the palm of her
hand.

The German turned to Bonaparte, who still stood on the step absorbed in
the beauty of the sunset.

"Do not address me; do not approach me, lost man," said Bonaparte, not
moving his eye nor lowering his chin. "There is a crime from which all
nature revolts; there is a crime whose name is loathsome to the human
ear--that crime is yours; that crime is ingratitude. This woman has been
your benefactress; on her farm you have lived; after her sheep you have
looked; into her house you have been allowed to enter and hold Divine
service--an honour of which you were never worthy; and how have you
rewarded her?--basely, basely, basely!"

"But it is all false, lies and falsehoods. I must, I will speak," said
the German, suddenly looking round bewildered. "Do I dream? Are you mad?
What may it be?"

"Go, dog," cried the Dutchwoman; "I would have been a rich woman this
day if it had not been for your laziness. Praying with the Kaffers
behind the kraal walls. Go, you Kaffer's dog!"

"But what then is the matter? What may have happened si