The Story of an African Farm

ck rafters, and warms the faded red lions on the quilt, and fills the little room with a gl

drooping eyelids. One white hand plays thoughtfully with a heavy flaxen moustache; yet, once he starts, and for an instant the languid lids raise themselves; there is a k

t is Lyndall, followed by Doss. Quietly

you were

ad gone to bed. I co

stranger rose to offer her his chair; but she took

mself and drawing his chair a little nearer to her; "these are hardly the quarter

'Come if

. You give me a

Questions would be asked which I cou

ve a certain virgin tenderness,"

come looked rough, we had best not have him in the house; therefore I brought him her

s to yourself, at all even

terrup

my shor

y foolish reply; you must take it back.

ung f

es h

o town to get thing

of a fell

foo

d rather marr

use you ar

marry a man," he said, leaning his elb

If I remained with him for twelve months he would never have dared to kiss my hand. As far as I wish

sing movement from his lip and smiled. It was n

enter on this semb

point on which I have a con

y not ma

d hold me fast. I shall never be free

e with the ring I

wish to throw it into the fire; the next da

o love me

in the world, do you think-" She paused. "I love you wh

resent moment," he said. "Possibly if you were to lo

to come between her and the firelig

he asked her, "why wi

ce of any other man. I cannot quite see that now. But it is all madness. You call into activity one part of my nature; there is a higher part that you k

y, 'I love you with the right ventricle of my heart, but not the left, and with the left auricle of my heart, but not the right; and, this

; he was trying to turn h

you. I do not pretend that it is in any high, superhuman sense; I do not say that I should like you as well if you were ugly and deformed, or that I should continue to prize you whatever your treatment of me might be, or to love you though you were a spirit without any body at all. That is sentimentality for beardless boys

herself into my power, and who has lost the right of meeting me on equal ter

added aft

same time, if I had required your generosity, it would not have been shown me. If, when I got your letter a month ago, hinting at your willingness to marry me, I had at once written, imploring you to come, you would have read the letter. '

ranger

r man's love is a child's love for butterflies. You follow till you have the thing, and break it. If you have broken one wing, and the th

he ways of the world; you hav

l have sneered

d want to master me. You liked me at first because I treated you and all men with indiffer

ss the little lips that defied him; but he restra

raid of. And"-a dreamy look came into her face-"because I li

smi

what your intentions are, the plan you wrote of. Y

' If you agree to it, well;

el

ooking beyond h

of me; then when we do not love any more we can say good-bye. I will not go down country," she added; "I will not go to Europe

his hand out to her, "why will you not give yourself enti

head without l

o long. But I w

he

n and tell them the facts. I do not want them to trouble me; I want to shake myself free of these

in consideratio

se conditions than not at all. I

its charm for him stronger. For pain and time, which trace deep lines and write a story on a human face, have a strangely different effect on one face and another. The face that is only fair, even very fair, they mar and flaw; but to the face whose beauty is the harmony between that which speaks from within and the form through which it sp

lders were bent; for a moment the little figure had forgotten its queenly be

im, nor any strength in her that made his own

ttle hand that re

g!" he said; "you

hand away from his,

e very

es

a little child might whom a

ntly up, and sat

tle thing

t her, and held her close to him. When she had sat for a long while, he drew with his hand the fa

want to t

N

tten the night

l that she s

nt to be q

es

that only sometimes he raised

vously, his yellow eyes filled with anxiety. He was not at all sure that she was not being retained in her pres

go," s

ed the shawl very

yndall; it is very damp outside. S

; I will come and wake

once, she still held it that he might kiss it again. Then he let her o

forgotten

N

she was gone, and the door shut, the stranger filled h

eaves to the ground. Doss, not liking the change from the cabin's warmth, ran quickly to the kitchen doorstep; but his mistress walked slowly past him, and took her way up the winding footpath that ran beside the stone wall of the camps. When she

come to you a

ground, and leaned her

y am I alone, so hard, so cold? I am so weary of myself! It is eating my soul to its core-self, self, self! I cannot bear this life! I cannot breathe, I cannot live! Will nothing free me from myself?" She p

cry to the dead, and the creature to its God; and of all this crying there comes nothing. The lifting up of the hands brings no salv

eth chattered, and he moved to another stone to see if it was drier. At last he heard his mistress' step, and they went into the house together. She lit a candle, and walked to the Boer-woman's bedroom. On a nail under the lady in pink hung the key of the war

said, and opened the wardrobe and returned the

call him. She sat down at the dressing-table to wait, and leaned her elbows on it, and buried her face in her hands. The glass reflected the little brown head with its even parting, and the tiny hands on w

There was a world of assurance in their still depths. So they had looked at her ever since she could remember, when it was but a small child's

looked into the d

tched out her hand and pressed it over them on the glass. "Dear