ce from the Transvaal Border, where
they will be almost certain to find safety. Those who insist upon
remaining in the town I cannot, of course, remove by force. I will make
all possible arrangements to laager them safely, but this will entail
heavy extra labour upon the forces at my command, and inevitable
discomfort--possibly severe suffering and privation--upon themselves. To
you, madam, I appeal to set a high example. Your Community numbers, unless
I am incorrectly informed, twelve religious. Consent to take the step I
urge upon you, retreat with your nuns to Cape Town while the opportunity
is yours."

He folded his arms, having spoken this curtly and crisply. The
Mother-Superior rose up out of her chair. It seemed to him as though she
would never have done rising, but at last she stood before him, very
straight and awfully tall, with her great stern eyes an inch above the
level of his own, and her white hands folded in her black serge sleeves.

"Sir," she said, "we are here under the episcopal jurisdiction of the
Catholic Bishop of the Diocese. We have received no order from His
Eminence to quit our post--and until we receive it, give me leave to tell
you, with all respect for your high official authority, that we shall
remain in Gueldersdorp."

Their looks crossed like swords. He grew crimson over the white
unsunburned line upon his forehead, and his moustache straightened like a
bar of rusty-red iron across his thin, tanned face. But he respected moral
power and determination when he encountered them, and this salient woman
provoked his respect.

"Let us keep cool----" he began.

"I assure you that I have never been otherwise," she said, "since the
beginning of this interview."

"Ma'am," he said, "you state the fact. Let me keep cool, and point out to
you a few of the--peculiarities in which the present situation
unfortunately abounds."

He laid down, with a look that asked permission, his hat and cane and the
odd glove upon the round, shining walnut-table that stood, adorned with
mild little religious works, in the geometrical centre of the Convent
parlour, and checked the various points off upon the fingers of the gloved
hand with the lean, brown, bare one.

"I anticipate very shortly the outbreak of hostilities." He had quite
forgotten that he was talking to a member of the squeaking sex. "I have
begun immediately upon my arrival here to prepare for them. The nucleus of
a sand-bag fort-system has bee