CHAPTER II.
HOW THE SISTERS CAME TO MOOIFONTEIN "Captain Niel," said Bessie Croft--for she was named Bessie--when they had painfully limped one hundred yards or so, "will you think me rude if I ask you a question ?" "Not at all." "What has induced you to come and bury yourself in this place ?" "Why do you ask ?" "Because I don't think that you will like it.

I don't think," she added slowly, "that it is a fit place for an English gentleman and an army officer like you.

You will find the Boer ways horrid, and then there will only be my old uncle and us two for you to associate with." John Niel laughed.

"English gentlemen are not so particular nowadays, I can assure you, Miss Croft, especially when they have to earn a living.
Take my case, for instance, for I may as well tell you exactly how I stand.

I have been in the army fourteen years, and I am now thirty-four.
Well, I have been able to live there because I had an old aunt who allowed me 120 pounds a year.