There had been a great deal of talk in the town about the Boers, but she was too much preoccupied with her own affairs to pay much attention to it.

Nor, indeed, was the public mind greatly moved; they were so much accustomed to Boer scares at Pretoria, and hitherto these had invariably ended in smoke.

But all of a sudden, on the morning of the eighteenth of December, came the news of the proclamation of the Republic.

The town was thrown into a ferment, and there arose a talk of going into laager, so that, anxious as she was to get away, Jess could see no hope of returning to the farm till the excitement was over.

Then, a day or two later, Conductor Egerton came limping into Pretoria from the scene of the disaster at Bronker's Spruit, with the colours of the 94th Regiment tied round his middle, and such a tale to tell that the blood went to her heart and seemed to stagnate there as she listened.
After that there was confusion worse confounded.