Piet was, of course, too busy to have any leisure for private affairs.

The whole matter slid into the past with the utmost ease.

No doubt he would come home some day, but very possibly not for years, and the Colonel was quite content with this vague prospect.
As for Nan, she flicked the matter from her with the utmost nonchalance.
Since her father had undertaken to explain things, she did not even trouble herself to write an answer to her husband's letter.

That letter had, in fact, very deeply wounded her pride.

It had been a command, and Nan was not accustomed to such treatment.