As to what was happening at Mooifontein she was in almost complete ignorance.

Bessie wrote to her, of course, and so did her uncle once or twice, but they did not tell her much of what she wanted to know.

Bessie's letters were, it is true, full of allusions to what Captain Niel was doing, but she did not go beyond that.

Her reticence, however, told her observant sister more than her words.

Why was she so reticent?
No doubt because things still hung in the balance.
Then Jess would think of what it all meant for her, and now and again give way to an outburst of passionate jealousy which would have been painful enough to witness if anybody had been there to see it.
Thus the time went on towards Christmas, for Jess, having been warmly pressed to do so, had settled to stay over Christmas and return to the farm with the new year.