Now on the morrow at dawn, as had been arranged, Jan and Ralph rode awayto the warm veldt with the cattle, leaving me and Suzanne to look afterthe farm. Three days later the Scotchmen came, and then it was that forlove of Ralph and for the sake of the happiness of my daughter I sinnedthe greatest sin of all my life--the sin that was destined to shape thefates of others yet unborn.
I was seated on the _stoep_ in the afternoon when I saw three white menand some Cape boys, their servants, riding up to the house.
"Here come those who would steal my boy from me," I thought to myself,and, like Pharaoh, I hardened my heart.
Now in those days my sight was very good, and while the men were yetsome way off I studied them all and made up my mind about them. Firstthere was a large young man of five-and-twenty or thereabouts, and Inoted with a sort of fear that he was not unlike to Ralph. The eyes werethe same and the shape of the forehead, only this gentleman had a weak,uncertain mouth, and I judged that he was very good-humoured, but of anindolent mind. By his side rode another man of quite a different stamp,and middle-aged. "The lawyer," I said to myself as I looked at hisweasel-like face, bushy eyebrows, and red hair. Indeed, that was aneasy guess, for who can mistake a lawyer, whatever his race may be? Thattrade is stronger than any blood, and leaves the same seal on all whofollow it. Doubtless if those lawyers of whom the Lord speaks hardthings in the Testament were set side by side with the lawyers who drawmortgage bonds and practise usury here in South Africa, they would proveto be as like to each other as are the grains of corn upon one mealiecob. Yes, when, all dressed the same, they stand together among thegoats on the last day few indeed will know them apart.
"A fool and a knave," said I to myself. "Well, perhaps I can deal withthe knave and then the fool will not trouble me."
As for the third man, I took no pains to study him, for I saw at oncethat he was nothing but an interpreter.
Well, up they rode to the _stoep_, the two Englishmen taking off theirhats to me, after their foolish fashion, while the interpreter, whocalled me "Aunt," although I was younger than he was, asked for leave tooff-saddle, according to our custom. I nodded my head, and having giventhe horses to the Cape boys, they came up onto the _stoep_ and shookhands with me as I sat. I was not going to rise to greet two Englishmenwhom I already hated in my heart, first because they _were_ Englishmen,and secondly because they were about to tempt me into sin, for suchsooner or later we always learn to hate.
"Sit," I said, pointing to the yellow-wood bench which was seated withstrips of _rimpi_, and the three of them squeezed themselves into thebench and sat there like white-breasted crows on a bough; the young manstaring at me with a silly smile, the lawyer peering this way andthat, and turning up his sharp nose at the place and all in it, and theinterpreter doing nothing at all, for he was a sensible man, who knewthe habits of well-bred people and how to behave in their presence.After five minutes or so the lawyer grew impatient, and said somethingin a sharp voice, to which the interpreter answered, "Wait."
So they waited till, just as the young man was beginning to go to sleepbefore my very eyes, Suzanne came onto the verandah, whereupon he wokeup in a hurry, and, jumping off the bench, began to bow and scrape andto offer her his seat, for there was no other.
"Suzanne," I said, taking no notice of his bad manners, "get coffee,"and she went, looking less displeased at his grimaces than I would havehad her do.
In time the coffee came, and they drank it, or pretended to, afterwhich the lawyer began to grow impatient once more, and spoke to theinterpreter, who said to me that they had come to visit us on a matterof business.
"Then tell him that it can wait till after we have eaten," I answered."It is not my habit to talk business in the afternoon. Why is the lawyerman so impatient, seeing that doubtless he is paid by the day?"
This was translated, and the lawyer asked how I knew his trade.
"In the same way that I know a weasel by its face and a stink-cat by itssmell," I replied, for every minute I hated that advocate more.
At this answer the lawyer grew white with anger, and the young lordburst into a roar of laughter, for, as I have said, these English peoplehave no manners. However, they settled themselves down again on theyellow-wood bench and looked at me; while I, folding my hands, satopposite, and looked at them for somewhere about another hour, as theinterpreter told them that if they moved I should be offended, and,for my part, I was determined that I would not speak to them of theirbusiness until Suzanne had gone to bed.
At last, when I saw that they would bear it no longer, for they werebecoming very wrathful, and saying words that sounded like oaths, Icalled for supper and we went in and ate it. Here again I noticed theresemblance between the young man and Ralph, for he had the same tricksof eating and drinking, and I saw that when he had done his meat heturned himself a little sideways from the table, crossing his legs in apeculiar fashion just as it always had been Ralph's habit to do.
"The two had one grandfather, or one grandmother," I said to myself, andgrew afraid at the thought.