Moreover, Marie does not refuse me.

Say, therefore, to which of us does she belong ?" "It would seem that it should be to you," he answered slowly, "since you have shown yourself so faithful, and were it not for you she would now be lying yonder," and he pointed to the little heaps that covered the bones of most of the expedition.

"Yes, yes, it would seem that it should be to you, who twice have saved her life and once have saved mine also." Now I suppose that he saw on my face the joy which I could not conceal, for he added hastily: "Yet, Allan, years ago I swore on the Book before God that never with my will should my daughter marry an Englishman, even if he were a good Englishman.

Also, just before we left the Colony, I swore again, in her presence and that of Hernan Pereira, that I would not give her to you, so I cannot break my oath, can I?
If I did, the good God would be avenged upon me." "Some might think that when I came here the good God was in the way of being avenged upon you for the keeping of that evil oath," I answered bitterly, glancing, in my turn, at the graves.
"Yes, they might, Allan," he replied without anger, for all his troubles had induced a reasonable frame of mind in him--for a while.

"Yet, His ways are past finding out, are they not ?" Now my anger broke out, and, rising, I said: "Do you mean, Mynheer Marais, that notwithstanding the love between us, which you know is true and deep, and notwithstanding that I alone have been able to drag both of you and the others out of the claws of death, I am never to marry Marie?
Do you mean that she is to be given to a braggart who deserted her in her need ?" "And what if I do mean that, Allan ?" "This: although I am still young, as you know well I am a man who can think and act for himself.