at is saying little enough. Is he
sound in wind and limb, and what illnesses has he had?"

"You must ask him yourself," I replied, losing patience, whereon she
called me a "mealy-mouthed little fool" and laughed. Then of a sudden
she said, "Kneel, both of you," and, strange as it may seem, we obeyed
her, for we, and especially Ralph, were afraid of the old lady. Yes,
there we knelt on the _stoep_ before her, while a Kaffir girl stood
outside and stared with her mouth open.

"Ralph Kenzie," she said, "whatever else you may be, at least you are
an honest man like your grandfather before you, for were it not so
you would never have come to tell this child that your fortune is her
fortune, and your title her title, though whether this be the case or
not, I neither know nor care, since at least you are of the blood of my
long-dead adopted son, and that is more to me than any wealth or rank.

"As for you, Suzanne, you are pert and deceitful, for you have kept
secret from me that which I had a right to learn; also you have too good
an opinion of your own looks, which as I tell you now for the last
time, are nothing compared to mine at your age, or even to those of my
daughter Suzanne, your grandmother. But this I will say, you have a good
heart and some of the spirit of your forbears, therefore"--and she
laid one of her heavy hands on the head of each of us--"I, old Suzanne
Botmar, bless you both. You shall be married next week, and may you be
happy in your marriage, and have children that would be a credit to me
and your great-grandfather, could we have lived to see them.

"There, there, Ralph and Suzanne--the first ones, my own lost Ralph and
Suzanne--will be glad to hear of this when I come to tell them of it, as
I shall do shortly. Yes, they will be glad to hear of it--" and she rose
and hobbled back to the _sit-kammer_, turning at the open door to call
out:

"Girl, where are your manners? Make that Scotchman some of your coffee."

So we were married, and within the week, for, all my protestations
notwithstanding, the Vrouw Botmar would suffer no delay. Moreover,
by means of some other interpreter, Ralph, playing traitor, secretly
brought my arguments to nothing, and indeed there was a cause for hurry,
for just then his regiment was ordered to return to England.

It was a strange sight, that marriage, for my great-grandmother attended
it seated on the _voor-kisse_ of her best waggon drawn by eighteen white
oxen,