But Vrouw Prinsloo, I remember, said outright that she thought the business foolish, since if anyone had a right to Marie, I had, wherever I chose to take her.

She added that, as for Hernan Pereira, he was a "sneak and a stinkcat," who had gone off to save his own life, and left them all to die.

If _she_ were Marie, should they meet again, she would greet him with a pailful of dirty water in the face, as she herself meant to do if she got the chance.
Vrouw Prinsloo, it will be observed, was a very outspoken woman and, I may add, an honest one.
So this contract was settled.

I have set it out at length because of its importance in our story.

But now I wish--ah! how I wish that I had insisted upon being married to Marie then and there.