her you will wish to kiss me any more."

"Be swift with it then," he answered, "for you torment me," and she
began her story.

She told how that, after he had gone away, Swart Piet began to persecute
her; how he had wished to kiss her and she had refused them, so that he
left her with threats. Then she paused suddenly and said:

"And now, before I finish the story, you shall swear an oath to me. You
shall swear that you will not attempt to kill Swart Piet because of it."

At first he would swear nothing, for already he was wild with anger
against the man, whereupon she answered that she would tell him nothing.

At last, when they had wrangled for a while, he asked her in a hoarse
voice, "Say now, Suzanne, have you come to any harm at the hands of this
fellow?"

"No," she answered, turning her head away. "God be thanked! I have come
to no harm of my body, but of my mind I have come to great harm."

Now he breathed more freely and said:

"Very well, then, on with your story, for I swear to you that I will not
try to kill Swart Piet because of this offence, whatever it may be."

So she went on, setting out everything exactly as it had happened,
and before she had finished Ralph was as one who is brain sick, for he
ground his teeth and stamped upon the earth like an angry bull. At last,
when Suzanne had told him all, she said:

"Now, Ralph, you will understand why I would not let you kiss me before
you had heard my story. It was because I feared that after hearing it
you would not wish to kiss me any more."

"You talk like a foolish girl," he answered, taking her into his arms
and embracing her, "and though the insult can only be paid back in
blood, I think no more of it than if some beast had splashed mud into
your face, which you had washed away at the next stream."

"Ah!" she cried, "you swore that you would not try to kill him for this
offence."

"Yes, Sweet, I swore, and I will keep my oath. This time I will not try
to kill Swart Piet."

Then they went into the house, and Ralph spoke to Jan about this matter,
of which indeed I had already told him something. Jan also was very
angry, and said that if he could meet Piet van Vooren it would go
hard with him. Afterwards he added, however, that this Piet was a very
dangerous man, and one whom it might be well to leave alone, especially
as Suzanne had taken no real hurt from him.

Nowadays, and here in Natal, such a villain could be made to answer
to the la