"
Tant Sannie could not understand; but the Hottentot maid, who had taken her
seat on the floor beside her mistress, translated the English into Dutch as
far as she was able.
"Ah, my first, my beloved!" he added, looking tenderly down at the picture.
"Oh, the beloved, the beautiful lineaments! My angel wife! This is surely
a sister of yours, madame?" he added, fixing his eyes on Tant Sannie.
The Dutchwoman blushed, shook her head, and pointed to herself.
Carefully, intently, Bonaparte looked from the picture in his hand to Tant
Sannie's features, and from the features back to the picture. Then slowly
a light broke over his countenance, he looked up, it became a smile; he
looked back at the miniature, his whole countenance was effulgent.
"Ah, yes; I see it now," he cried, turning his delighted gaze on the Boer-
woman; "eyes, mouth, nose, chin, the very expression!" he cried. "How is
it possible I did not notice it before?"
"Take another cup of coffee," said Tant Sannie. "Put some sugar in."
Bonaparte hung the picture tenderly up, and was turning to take the cup
from her hand, when the German appeared, to say that the pudding was ready
and the meat on the table.
"He's a God-fearing man, and one who knows how to behave himself," said the
Boer-woman as he went out at the door. "If he's ugly, did not the Lord
make him? And are we to laugh at the Lord's handiwork? It is better to be
ugly and good than pretty and bad; though of course it's nice when one is
both," said Tant Sannie, looking complacently at the picture on the wall.
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