step, she turned with the moonlight
on her face and smiled up at him with complete confidence.

CHAPTER XII

THE STALE

Whenever in after days Sylvia looked back upon her marriage, it
seemed to be wrapped in a species of hazy dream like the early
mists on that far-off range of hills.

They did not go again to Ritzen, but to a town of greater
importance further down the line, a ride of nearly forty miles
across the _veldt_. It was a busy town in the neighbourhood of
some mines, and its teeming life brought back again to her that
sense of aloneness in a land of strangers that had so oppressed her
in the beginning. It drove her to seek Burke's society whenever
possible. He was the shield between her and desolation, and in his
presence her misgivings always faded into the background. He knew
some of the English people at Brennerstadt, but she dreaded meeting
them, and entreated him not to introduce anyone to her until they
were married.

"People are all so curious. I can't face it," she said. "Mine is
rather a curious story, too. It will only set them talking, and I
do so hate gossip."

He smiled a little and conceded the point. And so she was still a
stranger to everyone on the day she laid her hand in Burke's and
swore to be faithful to him. The marriage was a civil one. That
also robbed it of all sense of reality for her. The ceremony left
her cold. It did not touch so much as the outer tissues of her
most vital sensibilities. She even felt somewhat impatient of the
formalities observed, and very decidedly glad when they were over.

"Now let's go for a ride and forget it all!" she said. "We'll have
a picnic on the _veldt_."

They had their picnic, but the heat was so great as to rob it of
much enjoyment. Sylvia was charmed by a distant view of a herd of
springbok, and her eyes shone momentarily when Burke said that they
would have to do some shooting together. But almost immediately
she shook her head.

"No, they are too pretty to kill. I love the hunt, but I hate the
kill. Besides, I shall be too busy. If I am going to be your
partner, one of us will have to do some work."

He laughed at that. "When do you want to begin?"

"Very soon," she said energetically. "Tomorrow if you like. I
don't think much of Brennerstadt, do you? It's such a barren sort
of place." He looked at her. "I believe you'll hate the winter on
the farm."

"No, I shan't. I shan't hate anything. I'm not