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He had put three rings on his little finger, with the intention of sticking it out stiffly when he raised a coffee-cup; now the little finger was curled miserably among its fellows. It was small relief when the meal was over, and Tant Sannie and he repaired to the front room.
"Her father's got two thousand pounds in the green wagon box under his bed, and a farm, and five thousand sheep, and God Almighty knows how many goats and horses. They milk ten cows in mid-winter, and the young men are after her like flies about a bowl of milk. She says she means to get married in four months, but she doesn't yet know to whom. It was so with me when I was young," said Tant Sannie.
He, he, he!" laughed Bonaparte, as the boy fled away along the low stone wall, almost furtively, as one in fear. At five o'clock Bonaparte knelt before a box in the German's room. He was busily unpacking it. It had been agreed upon between Tant Sannie and himself, that now the German was gone he, Bonaparte, was to be no longer schoolmaster, but overseer of the farm.
"No," said Tant Sannie, indignantly; "we're going to sit up!" and she walked off in triumph with the candles. Nevertheless, when all the rest of the house had retired, when the long candle was lighted, when the coffee-kettle was filled, when she sat in the elbow-chair, with her lover on a chair close beside her, and when the vigil of the night was fairly begun, she began to find it wearisome.
In the dining room Em worked at her machine, and Gregory sat close beside her, his great blue eyes turned to the window where Lyndall leaned out talking to Waldo. Tant Sannie took two candles out of the cupboard and held them up triumphantly, winking all round the room. "He's asked for them," she said. "Does he want them for his horse's rubbed back?" asked Gregory, new to up-country life.
Perhaps it is because I am only a woman; but I do love you as much as I can." Now the Kaffer maids were coming from the huts. He kissed her again, eyes and mouth and hands, and left her. Tant Sannie was well satisfied when told of the betrothment.
Bonaparte was so pleased with this sally of his wit that he chuckled a little and went to lie down on his bed. There was bread-baking that afternoon, and there was a fire lighted in the brick oven behind the house, and Tant Sannie had left the great wooden-elbowed chair in which she passed her life, and waddled out to look at it.
He could give the stranger his bed, and he could give the stranger his hat, and he could give the stranger his brandy; but his Sunday service! After a good while he said: "I might speak to Tant Sannie; I might arrange; you might take the service in my place, if it "
"I have much news for you. "Tant Sannie, Em's Boer stepmother, is to be married tomorrow. She is gone to town today, and the wedding feast is to be at her brother's farm. Em and I are going to ride over on horseback, but her cousin is going to ride in the buggy with that German. I don't think I've written to you since she came back from school.
"You must not think to make your departure, not for many days," said the German presently. "Tant Sannie gives her consent, and " "My friend," said Bonaparte, closing his eyes sadly, "you are kind; but were it not that tomorrow is the Sabbath, weak and trembling as I lie here, I would proceed on my way. I must seek work; idleness but for a day is painful.
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