Part 4 (1/2)

”When is Miss Lalante co bathed her face in cool fresh water, calow

”Don't you be too curious, old Sanna,” was the answer ”Perhaps soon-- perhaps not so soon Who knows?”

”A Missis is badly wanted here, _ja_, very badly Look at all that,”

with a sweep of a yellow hand towards the confused pile of books and papers which had encroached over the greater part of the table ”All that would be cleared away His letters too Why the Baas does not even take the trouble to open his letters Look at thehtened Well she knehy those envelopes remained unopened Their contents but bore upon the difficulties of their recipient, but in no sense with a tendency to alleviate the sa he ot a duster, and dusted and straightened the pictures and other things upon the wall One frahten It was the one which contained her own portrait: and realising this a very soft, sweet sical mo you allow old Sanna to dust,” she said ingenuously ”How many times a week is she under orders to do it?”

”You shall pay for that,” he answered ”There Now you have done so duly, you shall own that you knew perfectly well that nobody ever touches it but oeije_! it is as if there were really a Missis here at last”

The interruption ca in the dishes Both laughed

”See, old Sanna,” said Wyvern ”We are rather tired of that remark So if you can't invent a new one don't make any”

”Better to be tired of that than of the Missis,” chuckled the old woman, as she withdrew It will be seen that she was rather a privileged person

The evening slipped by all too soon for these two, as they sat out on the stoep, watching the suffusing glow that heralded the rising of the broad h as multifold as the voices of day, were scarcely hushed, and the shrill bay of a jackal away beyond the river, would seem but a distance of yards instead of ht bird too, would float ever and anon fro around the house would start up and bark in deep-toned, angry chorus, as the harsh shout of sentinel baboons echoed forth from the darksome recesses of the kloofs behind the homestead: or perchance as they detected some other sound, too subtle for huht,” said the girl, listening

”Dearest, it sees alwaysup all those baboons--a leopard perhaps--not wild dogs I hope You know it's one ofable to hear all sorts of wild ani, or when I a awake It's one of the charms of this place I wonder if the next man here will say the same”

”Don't Oh, is there no way out,” she cried, in a despairing tone, ”no way by which you will not be forced to part with this beautiful place you love so much, and where our lives were to have passed in a very paradise? No way?”

”None”

Then both sat in silence, fingers intertwined A riold peered up from behind the dark outline of the opposite _rand_, then a broad disc, and the great fierythe shadowed recesses of the river valley in a network of silvern gleams At last Lalante spoke

”Dearest, I have to say it, as you know, but--it is time”

”To saddle up? Yes, I' we shall be together for another hour and a half”

Both had risen The girl went to find her hat and gloves while Wyvern lighted a waggon lantern and went round to the stable In his mind was the consciousness of the awful depression that would be upon hi his return ride; when her presence ithdrawn They would see each other again on the morrow in all probability, but--even then it would be under different circu in the cool air, snorted and sidled as their riders fared forth into the peaceful beauty of the radiant night

So fresh were they, indeed, that they could have covered the ten miles that lay before them in far less time than their said riders were disposed to allow them And the latter were not inclined for hurry

This ride beneath the golden ainst the pale sky near and far, the sweet breaths of night distilling perfuether--alone They talked--and the subject of their talk was one that never grew old--that never palled--for it was of the time which had elapsed since they had first met--and loved; and that ti; when he had been happy, contented here in his quiet way, because then unconscious that he was already on the road to financial ruin--of her father's arrival two years ago, when he had bought the neighbouring stock farly; but,topic still, of her own arrival home a year later than that

”And you have never quite forgiventhat I was prepared--well--not to like you?” he said, when they had reached this point

”Forgiven you, darling? Why--is not the result a very triumph to me? I knew that it was the moment we first looked at each other”

”Did you? From your side I was not so confident then But I see you now as you first ca ene_ or self-consciousness And then--later We did not have to _say_ ed to each other Didn't we?”