Page:The Little Karoo (1925).djvu/123

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Anna’s Marriage

not one of us that knew it, but Philip was now a bankrupt and the Jew had come to make a list of all the things that must be sold to pay his debts. Yes, Anna’s house and her lands, her cattle and her ostriches, all, all that was hers must now be sold to pay Philip’s debts. And even to the day of the sale, which was to be at old Piet Grobelaar’s store, there was not one of us that knew it.

The day of the sale, early in the morning before Anna was up, Philip sent his boys with the cattle and the ostriches to old Piet Grobelaar’s. When coffee-time came he said to Anna that he had sent the boys for forage and that he must now ride after them. Philip left Anna alone in the house, and on the way to Piet Grobelaar’s he met again the strange young man who was a Jew. As they stood talking together in the road brother Ludovic rode by on his horse, and the Jew, who seemed angry about something with Philip, called to Ludovic to stop. At first, because for many

months now not one of my brothers had

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