ed the practical official.
"_Maagtig_, Anna--if ever any man had reason to sit still and be
thankful, that man was Colvin. But, no. Off he must go, not because
he's wanted for fighting purposes, but just to see the fun--as he calls
it. Well, he'll see a great deal that he won't find fun at all. But
these English are all alike, fussy, restless--must have a finger in
everything that goes on--in a fight most of all."

Yes, Aletta was fretting, if a pale and careworn look upon her face was
any index to the mind within. Now, with a rush, all came back--all that
this man was to her. She recalled the hours they had spent together--
every tone and every look--all that he had ever said, and how time had
fled like a streak of sunbeam when she was in his presence--how, too,
her first thought on awaking to another day, again and again, had been
one of half-incredulous, blissful gratitude that in this way she was to
go through life. And now he was gone, and at any moment, for all she
knew, he might be lying dead and still for ever upon the veldt. Oh, it
would not bear thinking on! She had not known what love was before, she
told herself. She knew now, and when he returned to her he should know
too. This separation had taught her. Surely, too, it had taught him.

Among those who frequently visited at Piet Plessis' to try to cheer her
up was, somewhat to her surprise, her cousin Adrian; remembering how
badly he had taken her refusal in the first instance, and the dire
threats he had used towards whosoever should usurp what he chose to
imagine was his place. Then she reflected that, after all, he had
justified the good opinion she had always held of him, in that he had
accepted the inevitable in a sensible and manly way. True, once or
twice it occurred to her uneasily that he might be taking the
opportunity of ingratiating himself once more in view of possible
accidents; but she put the thought from her Another source of surprise
was the way in which she found herself talking to Adrian about the
absent one. At first she had shrunk from so doing, deeming the topic an
unpalatable one to him. But he had not seemed to regard it as such, and
she soon lost her constraint on that head. Then Adrian's visits became
of daily occurrence, and Piet and his wife, seeing they seemed to
brighten Aletta up, encouraged them.

One day she asked him how it was he still remained in Pretoria. Now
that the war was an accomplished fact, hi