“Love and war indeed!” he repeated, adding kindly, “My poor boy, I fear that you have fallen into great trouble.”

“Why, father?” I asked.  “Is it wrong that we should love each other?”

“Not wrong, but, in the circumstances, quite natural—­I should have foreseen that it was sure to happen.  No, not wrong, but most unfortunate.  To begin with, I do not wish to see you marry a foreigner and become mixed up with these disloyal Boers.  I hoped that one day, a good many years hence, for you are only a boy, Allan, you would find an English wife, and I still hope it.”

“Never!” I ejaculated.

“Never is a long word, Allan, and I dare say that what you are so sure is impossible will happen after all,” words that made me angry enough at the time, though in after years I often thought of them.

“But,” he went on, “putting my own wishes, perhaps prejudices, aside, I think your suit hopeless.  Although Henri Marais likes you well enough and is grateful to you just now because you have saved the daughter whom he loves, you must remember that he hates us English bitterly.  I believe that he would almost as soon see his girl marry a half-caste as an Englishman, and especially a poor Englishman, as you are, and unless you can make money, must remain.  I have little to leave you, Allan.”

“I might make money, father, out of ivory, for instance.  You know I am a good shot.”

“Allan, I do not think you will ever make much money, it is not in your blood; or, if you do, you will not keep it.  We are an old race, and I know our record, up to the time of Henry VIII. at any rate.  Not one of us was ever commercially successful.  Let us suppose, however, that you should prove yourself the exception to the rule, it can’t be done at once, can it?  Fortunes don’t grow in a night, like mushrooms.”

“No, I suppose not, father.  Still, one might have some luck.”

“Possibly.  But meanwhile you have to fight against a man who has the luck, or rather the money in his pocket.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, sitting up.

“I mean Hernando Pereira, Allan, Marais’s nephew, who they say is one of the richest men in the Colony.  I know that he wishes to marry Marie.”

“How do you know it, father?”

“Because Marais told me so this afternoon, probably with a purpose.  He was struck with her beauty when he first saw her after your escape, which he had not done since she was a child, and as he stopped to guard the house while the rest went after the Quabies—­well, you can guess.  Such things go quickly with these Southern men.”

I hid my face in the pillow, biting my lips to keep back the groan that was ready to burst from them, for I felt the hopelessness of the situation.  How could I compete with this rich and fortunate man, who naturally would be favoured of my betrothed’s father?  Then on the blackness of my despair rose a star of hope.  I could not, but perchance Marie might.  She was very strong-natured and very faithful.  She was not to be bought, and I doubted whether she could be frightened.