noise abroad the importance of the event that
had just taken place, which was nothing less than the marriage of Colonel
Everard's daughter to Piet Cradock, the man of millions. Of the latter's
very existence none of the villagers had heard till a certain day, but a
few weeks before, when he had suddenly appeared at the Hall as the
accepted suitor of Nan Everard, whom everyone loved.

She was only twenty, prettiest, gayest, wildest, of the whole wild tribe.
Three sons and eight daughters had the Colonel--a handsome, unruly
family, each one of them as lavish, as extravagant, and as undeniably
attractive as he was himself.

His wife had been dead for years. They lived on the verge of bankruptcy,
had done so as long as most of them could remember; but it was only of
late that matters had begun to look really serious for them. It was
rumoured that the Hall was already mortgaged beyond its value, and it was
common knowledge that the Colonel's debts were accumulating with alarming
rapidity. This marriage, so it was openly surmised, had been arranged in
haste for the sole purpose of easing the strain.

For that Nan Everard cared in the smallest degree for the solemn,
thick-set son of a Boer mother, to whom she had given herself, no one
ever deemed possible for an instant. But he was rich, fabulously rich,
and that fact counterbalanced many drawbacks. Piet Cradock owned a large
share in a diamond mine in the South African Republic, and he was a
person of considerable importance in his native land in consequence. He
had visited England on business, but his time there had been limited to
a bare six weeks. This fact had necessitated a brief wooing and a speedy
marriage.

He had met the girl of his choice by a mere accident. He had chanced to
be seated on her right hand at a formal dinner-party in town. Very little
had passed between them then, but later, through the medium of his host,
he had sought her out, and called upon her. Within a week he had asked
her to be his wife. And Nan Everard, impulsive, dazzled by the prospect
of unbounded wealth, and feverishly eager to ease the family burden, had
accepted him.

He was obliged to sail for South Africa within three weeks of his
proposal, and preparations for the marriage had therefore to be hurried
forward with all speed. They were to leave for Plymouth immediately after
the ceremony, and to sail on the following day.

So at breathless speed events had raced, and no one knew e