Between Snow and Fire — page 251: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Se tee ea ke ee ee ae . a j > . . _ ; a AT SWAANEPOEL’S HOEK. He had, as we have said, plenty of wholesome and con- genial work, with sport to his heart's content, and enjoyed a coinplete immunity from care or worry. These things alone might make any man happy. But there was another factor in this instance. There was the sweet companion- ship of one whom he had loved passionately when the case was hopeless and she was beyond his reach, and whom he loved not less absorbingly now that all barriers were broken down between them, now that they would soon belong to each other until their life’s end. This was the influence that cast a radiant glow upon the doings and undertakings of everyday life, encircling everything with a halo of love, even asthe very peace of Heaven. Not less upon Eanswyth did the same influences fall. The revulsion following upon that awful period of heart-break and despair had given her fresh life indeed. In her grand beauty, in the full glow of health and perfect happiness, no one would have recognised the white, stricken mourner of that time. She realised that there was nothing on earth left to desire. And then her conscience would faintly re- proach her. Had shea right to revel in such perfect happi- ness in the midst of a world of sorrow and strife ? But the said world seemed to keep very fairly outside that idyllic abode. Now and then they would drive or ride into Somerset East, or visit or be visited by a neighbour— the latter not often. The bulk of the surrounding settlers were Boers, and beyond exchanging a few neighbourly civilities from time to time they saw but little of them. This, however, was not an unmixed evil. Bentley had been as good as his word. His wife was a capital housekeeper and had effectively taken all cares of that nature off Eanswyth’s hands. Both were thoroughly good and worthy people, of colonial birth, who, by steadi- | ness and trustworthy intelligence, had worked their way up from a very lowly position. Unlike too many of their class, however, they were not consumed with a perennial anxiety to show forth their equality in the sight of Heaven with those whom they knew to be immeasurably their superiors in birth and culture, and to whom, moreover, they owed in no small degree their own well-being. So the re- lations existing between the two different factors which composed the household were of the most cordial nature. There had been some delay in settling up Tom Carhayes’ a GEomicbooks (ace)