ick with memories of her,
and the tones of her lost voice seemed to linger in the echoes of the
hills at night.

It was upon the anniversary of the marriage of Ralph and Suzanne, yes,
on the very day year of her taking by Piet Van Vooren, that we made up
our minds to go. We had dined and Ralph sat quite silent, his head bowed
a little upon his breast, as was his custom, while Jan spoke loudly of
the wrongs of the Boers at the hand of the British Government. I do
not think that he was much troubled with those wrongs just then, but he
talked because he wished to interest Ralph and turn his mind from sad
thoughts.

"What think you of it, son?" said Jan at length, for it is hard work
talking all by oneself, even when one has the British Government to
abuse, which was the only subject that made Jan a wordy man.

"I, father?" answered Ralph with a start, which showed me that his mind
was far away. "I do not quite know what I think. I should like to hear
what the English Government say about the matter, for I think that they
mean to be fair, only they do not understand the wants and troubles of
us Boers who live so far away. Also, without doubt the missionaries mean
well, but they believe that a black man has a bigger soul than a white
man, whereas we who know the black man see that there is a difference."

"Allemachter, son," said Jan, looking at him out of the corner of his
eye, "cannot you show some spirit? I hoped that being an Englishman
you would have stood up for your own people, and then we might have
quarrelled about it, which would have done us both good, but you only
sit and talk like a magistrate in his chair, looking at both sides of
the case at once, which is an evil habit for men who have to make their
way in the world. Well, I tell you that if you had seen the cursed
British Government hang your father and uncle at Slagter's Nek, and not
satisfied with that, hang them a second time, when the ropes broke, just
because they tried to shoot a few Hottentot policemen, you would not
think much of its fairness. And as for the missionaries of the London
Society, well, I should like to hang _them_, as would be right and
proper, seeing that they blacken the names of honest Boers."

Ralph only smiled at this onslaught, for he was not to be stirred from
his lethargy by talk about Slagter's Nek and the missionaries. For a
while there was silence, which presently was broken by Jan roaring at me
in a loud voice as though