or, was considerably astonished when I
received this letter and the accompanying bundle of closely-written MSS.
To me also it was as though my old friend had risen from the grave and
once more stood before me, telling some history of his stormy and
tragic past in that quiet, measured voice that I have never been able to
forget.

The first manuscript I read was that entitled "Marie." It deals with Mr.
Quatermain's strange experiences when as a very young man he accompanied
the ill-fated Pieter Retief and the Boer Commission on an embassy to
the Zulu despot, Dingaan. This, it will be remembered, ended in their
massacre, Quatermain himself and his Hottentot servant Hans being the
sole survivors of the slaughter. Also it deals with another matter more
personal to himself, namely, his courtship of and marriage to his first
wife, Marie Marais.

Of this Marie I never heard him speak, save once. I remember that on a
certain occasion--it was that of a garden fete for a local charity--I
was standing by Quatermain when someone introduced to him a young girl
who was staying in the neighborhood and had distinguished herself
by singing very prettily at the fete. Her surname I forget, but her
Christian name was Marie. He started when he heard it, and asked if she
were French. The young lady answered No, but only of French extraction
through her grandmother, who also was called Marie.

"Indeed?" he said. "Once I knew a maiden not unlike you who was also of
French extraction and called Marie. May you prove more fortunate in life
than she was, though better or nobler you can never be," and he bowed to
her in his simple, courtly fashion, then turned away. Afterwards, when
we were alone, I asked him who was this Marie of whom he had spoken to
the young lady. He paused a little, then answered:

"She was my first wife, but I beg you not to speak of her to me or to
anyone else, for I cannot bear to hear her name. Perhaps you will learn
all about her one day." Then, to my grief and astonishment, he broke
into something like a sob and abruptly left the room.

After reading the record of this Marie I can well understand why he was
so moved. I print it practically as it left his hands.

There are other MSS. also, one of which, headed "Child of Storm,"
relates the moving history of a beautiful and, I fear I must add,
wicked Zulu girl named Mameena who did much evil in her day and went
unrepentant from the world.

Another, amongst other thi