“Change his mind!” said the old lady, with a glare of indignation, “I should like to see him dare to change his mind, this Englishman whom you seem to have honoured thus, opsitting with him without my leave.  A lord indeed?  What do I care for lords?  The question is whether I should not order the English creature off the place; yes, and I would do it were not his face the face of Ralph’s cousin, and his name the name Glenthirsk.”

When I had interpreted as much of this speech as I thought necessary, there was a little silence, after which Ralph began to speak very solemnly.

“Listen, Suzanne,” he said, “and repeat my words to your great-grandmother.  She says that my name is Lord Glenthirsk, but within the last few days I have come to believe that it is nothing of the sort, but only plain Ralph Mackenzie.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, astonished.

“I mean, Suzanne, that if your legitimate descent from that Ralph Mackenzie who was cast away about sixty years ago on the coast of the Transkei can be proved—­as I believe it can, for I have made inquiries, and find that his marriage to your grandmother to which her mother who still lives can bear witness, was duly registered—­then you are the Baroness Glenthirsk of Glenthirsk, and I, the descendant of a younger son, am only Lieutenant Ralph Mackenzie of Her Majesty’s—­Highlanders.”

“Oh!  Ralph, how can this be?” I gasped.  “I thought that in England men took rank, not the women.”

“So they do generally,” he answered; “but as it happens in our family the title descends in the female line, and with it the entailed estates, so that you would succeed to your father’s rights although he never enjoyed them.  Suzanne, I am not speaking lightly; all this while that I have kept away from you I have been inquiring in Scotland and the Cape, for I sent home photographs of those miniatures and a statement of the facts, and upon my word I believe it to be true that you and no other are the heiress of our house.”

Almost mechanically, for I was lost in amazement, I translated his words.  My great-grandmother thought a while and said: 

“Wonderful are the ways of the Lord who thus in my old age answers my prayers and rolls from my back the load of my sin.  Suzanne, ask that Scotchman if he still means to marry you,” and seeing me hesitate, as well I might, she struck her stick upon the floor and added, “Obey, girl, and ask.”

So with great shame I asked, explaining that I was forced to it.

“Do I still mean to marry you, Suzanne?” he said, astonished.  “Why surely you must understand that the question is, do you still intend to marry me?  When I begged you to take me some months ago I had much to offer; to-day if things be as I am sure they are, I am but a penniless Scottish gentleman, while you are one of the richest and most noble ladies in Great Britain.”

By way of answer I looked at him in a fashion which I trust he understood, but before I could speak, Vrouw Botmar broke in, for, as usual, I had translated.