But I had argued the thing out before and made up my mind to lie, though, so far as I know, it is the only lie I ever told, and I am not a woman who often changes her mind.

Therefore I lied.
"It is not he," I said, "though for his sake I might wish that it were, and this I can prove to you." Now, when I had told this great falsehood, prompted to it by my love for the lad and my love for Suzanne, his affianced wife, my mind grew as it were empty for a moment, and I remember that in the emptiness I seemed to hear a sound of laughter echoing in the air somewhere above the roof of the house.

Very swiftly I recovered myself, and looking at the men I saw that my words rejoiced them, except the interpreter indeed, who being a paid servant coming from far away, from the neighbourhood of Capetown I believe, had no interest in the matter one way or the other beyond that of earning his money with as little trouble as possible.
Yes, they smiled at each other, looking as though a great weight had been lifted off their minds, till presently the lawyer checked himself and said: "Be so good as to set out the proofs of which you speak, Vrouw Botmar." "I will," I answered, "but tell me first, the ship _India_ was wrecked in the year 1824, was she not ?" "Undoubtedly," answered the lawyer.
"Well, have you heard that another ship called the _Flora_, travelling from the Cape I know not whither, was lost on this coast in the same month of the following year, and that a few of her passengers escaped ?" "I have heard of it," he said.
"Good.

Now look here," and going to a chest that stood beneath the window, I lifted from it the old Bible that belonged to my grandfather and father, on the white pages at the beginning of which are written the record of many births, marriages, deaths and other notable events that had happened in the family.

Opening it I searched and pointed to a certain entry inscribed in the big writing of my husband Jan, and in ink which was somewhat faint, for the ink that the traders sold us in those days had little virtue in it.