Vrouw Grobelaar and Her Leading Cases | Page 6

set on a pile of lies. 'How do you know
there was a woman?' asked Stoffel.
"'How?' she repeated. 'How I know! Stoffel, you never had a thought I
did not know; never a hope but I hoped it for you, nor a fear but I
thought how to safeguard you. I never lived but in you, Stoffel.
"'Let us speak nothing but the truth now,' she went on. 'You and I have
always been beyond the need for lies to one another, and as I wait here
for you to tell me, I have one hand in yours and the other in Christ's.
Let me not think hardly of her as I go.'
"'You would not curse her?' he said quickly. "'Not even that' she
answered, smiling a little. 'And if you will not tell me, I will die even
content with that, since it is your wish.'
"'Listen,' said Stoffel then. And forthwith, looking backwards and
forwards in shame and sorrow, he told the tale. He told how he saw a
face, which laid hold on his life ever after, how it governed and
compelled him with the mere memory, and hung in his mind like a
deed done. And he also told how he hoped after death to see that face
with the eyes of his soul, and dwell with it in heaven.
"When he had finished he cast a glance at his wife. She was lying on

her back, holding his hand still, and smiling up to the ceiling with a
pleasant face of contentment.
"'Can you forgive me?' he cried, and would have gone on to protest and
explain, but she pressed his hand and he was silent.
"'Forgive you!' she said at last. 'Forgive you! No; but I will bless you
for all of it. So it seems I have won after all, but now I wish I had let be.
It was no spirit you saw, Stoffel. There was a woman there, and while
you lay white and lifeless she held you in her arms, and bent over you.
And just for one moment you opened your eyes and saw her, while her
face was close to yours. Then you died again, and remained so for a
day and a night Was there love in her eyes, Stoffel?'
"'Love!' cried Stoffel, and fell silent.
"In a minute he spoke again. 'I am helpless,' he said, 'and you are strong.
But, curse and hate me as you will, you must tell me who this woman
was.'
"'A little time since it was I that asked,' she said, 'and you would not tell
me.'
"'I beseech you,' he said.
"'You shall never ask twice,' she answered gently. 'I will tell you, but
not this moment.'
"So for a while they sat together, and the sun began to go down, and
blazed on the window-panes and on the golden hair of the dying
woman. She lay as if in a mist of glory, and smiled at Stoffel. He,
looking at her, could not lack of being startled by the beauty that had
come over her face and the joy that weighed her eyelids.
"She stirred a little, and sighed. Stoffel cast an arm round her to hold
her up, and his heart bounded woefully when he felt how light she was.
Her head came to his shoulder, as to a place where it belonged, and
their lips met.

"'Shall I tell you now?' she said in a whisper.
"Stoffel did not answer, so she asked again. 'Will you know, Stoffel?'
"'No,' he answered. 'I'm cured.'
"'I will tell you, then,' she cried. 'No,' he repeated. 'Let it be.'
"So together they sat for a further while, and the time grew on for going.
She was to die with the sun; she had said it. And as they sat both could
see through the window the sun floating lower, with an edge in its
grave already, and the rim of the earth black against it. The noises of
the veld and the farm came in to them, and they drew closer together.
"Neither wept; they were too newly met for that. But Stoffel felt a dull
pain of sorrow overmastering him, and soon he groaned aloud.
"'My wife, my wife,' he cried.
"She rested wholly on his arm, and shivered a little.
"'Stoffel,' she said in a voice that henceforth was to whisper forever,
'Stoffel, you love me?'
"'As God sees me,' he answered. "'Listen,' she said, and fought with the
tide that was fast drowning her words. 'That face--you--saw . . . was . . .
mine!'
"She smiled as his arm tightened on her, and died so smiling."
There was silence in the shadowy room as the tale finished, until it was
broken by the Vrouw Grobelaar.