"It is the English that she hates."
"My dear friend," said the stranger, "I am Irish every inch of me--father
Irish, mother Irish. I've not a drop of English blood in my veins."
"And you might not be married, might you?" persisted the German. "If you
had a wife and children, now? Dutch people do not like those who are not
married."
"Ah," said the stranger, looking tenderly at the block, "I have a dear wife
and three sweet little children--two lovely girls and a noble boy."
This information having been conveyed to the Boer-woman, she, after some
further conversation, appeared slightly mollified; but remained firm to her
conviction that the man's designs were evil.
"For, dear Lord!" she cried; "all Englishmen are ugly; but was there ever
such a red-rag-nosed thing with broken boots and crooked eyes before? Take
him to your room," she cried to the German; "but all the sin he does I lay
at your door."
The German having told him how matters were arranged, the stranger made a
profound bow to Tant Sannie and followed his host, who led the way to his
own little room.
"I thought she would come to her better self soon," the German said
joyously. "Tant Sannie is not wholly bad, far from it, far." Then seeing
his companion cast a furtive glance at him, which he mistook for one of
surprise, he added quickly, "Ah, yes, yes; we are all a primitive people
here--not very lofty.
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