And, indeed, it did come to his ears, though how to this hour I do
not know, unless, in spite of our warning, the _predicant_ who was to
perform the ceremony, a good and easy man but one who loved gossip,
blabbed of it on his journey to the farm, for he had a two days' ride to
reach it.

It was the wish of all of us that we should continue to live together
after the marriage of Ralph and Suzanne, though not beneath the same
roof. Indeed, there would have been no room for another married pair in
that house, especially if children came to them, nor did I wish to
share the rule of a dwelling with my own daughter after she had taken
a husband, for such arrangements often end in bitterness and quarrels.
Therefore Jan determined to build them a new house in a convenient spot
not far away, and it was agreed that during the two or three months
while this house was building Ralph and his wife should pay a visit to a
cousin of mine, who owned a very fine farm on the outskirts of the dorp
which we used to visit from time to time to partake of _Nachtmahl_[*].
This seemed wise to us for several reasons beyond that of the building
of the new house. It is always best that young people should begin their
married life alone, as by nature they wish to do, and not under the eyes
of those who have bred and nurtured them, for thus face to face, with
none to turn to, they grow more quickly accustomed to each other's
faults and weaknesses, which, perhaps, they have not learned or taken
count of before.

[*] That is, Holy Communion.

Moreover, in the case of Ralph and Suzanne we thought it safer that
they should be absent for a while from their own district and the
neighbourhood of Swart Piet, living in a peopled place where they could