ing the two or three months
while this house was building Ralph and his wife should pay a visit to a
cousin of mine, who owned a very fine farm on the outskirts of the dorp
which we used to visit from time to time to partake of _Nachtmahl_[*].
This seemed wise to us for several reasons beyond that of the building
of the new house. It is always best that young people should begin their
married life alone, as by nature they wish to do, and not under the eyes
of those who have bred and nurtured them, for thus face to face, with
none to turn to, they grow more quickly accustomed to each other's
faults and weaknesses, which, perhaps, they have not learned or taken
count of before.

[*] That is, Holy Communion.

Moreover, in the case of Ralph and Suzanne we thought it safer that
they should be absent for a while from their own district and the
neighbourhood of Swart Piet, living in a peopled place where they could
not be molested, although, not knowing the wickedness of his heart, we
did not believe it possible that he _would_ molest them when once they
were married. Indeed, there was some talk of their going to the dorp
for the wedding, and I wish that they had done so, for then much trouble
might have been spared to us. But their minds were set against this
plan, for they desired to be married where they had met and lived so
long, so we did not gainsay them.

At length came the eve of the wedding day and with it the _predicant_,
who arrived hungry and thirsty but running over with smiles and
blessings. That night we all supped together and were full of joy, nor
were Ralph and Suzanne the least joyous of us, though they said little,
but sat gazing at each other across the table as though the moon had
struck them.

Before I went to bed I had occasion to go out of the house for I
remembered that some linen which Suzanne was to take with her had been
left drying upon bushes after the wash, and I feared that if it remained
there the Kaffir women might steal it. This linen was spread at a little
distance from the house, near the huts where Sihamba lived, but I took
no lantern with me, for the moon was bright.

As I drew near the spot I thought that I heard a sound of chanting which
seemed to come from a little circle of mimosa trees that grew a spear's
throw to my left, of chanting very low and sweet. Wondering who it was
that sung thus, and why she sang--for the voice was that of a woman--I
crept to the nearest of the