We parted in anger, but I hope in the new circumstances that have arisen in the land to show him that I, for one, bear no anger .-- Believe me, dear Miss Bessie, your humble and devoted servant, "Frank Muller." Bessie thrust the letter into the pocket of her dress, then again she caught hold of the verandah post, and supported herself by it, while the light of the sun appeared to fade visibly out of the day before her eyes and to replace itself by a cold blackness in which there was no break.
He was dead!--her lover was dead! The glow had gone from her life as it seemed to be going from the day, and she was left desolate.

She had no knowledge of how long she stood thus, staring with wide eyes at the sunshine she could not see.

She had lost her count of time; things were phantasmagorical and unreal; all that she could realise was this one overpowering, crushing fact--John was dead! "Missie," said the ill-favoured messenger below, fixing his one eye upon her poor sorrow-stricken face, and yawning.
There was no answer.
"Missie," he said again, "is there any answer?
I must be going.

I want to get back in time to see the Boers take Pretoria." Bessie looked at him vaguely.

"Yours is a message that needs no answer," she said.