That quiet
water, the happy birds that nested in the trees and the flowering lilies
seemed to be her only friends. Of the last, indeed, she would count the
buds, watching them open in the morning and close again for their sleep at
night, until a day came when their loveliness turned to decay, and others
appeared in their place.
On the morrow of Noie's departure, Tamboosa and other indunas visited her,
and asked her if she would not descend to the kraal of the King, and help
him and his council to try cases, since while she was in the land she was
its first judge. She answered, "No, that place smelt too much of blood."
If they had cases for her to try, let them be brought before her in her
own house. This she said idly, thinking no more of it, but next day was
astonished to learn that the plaintiff and defendant in a great suit, with
their respective advocates, and from thirty to forty witnesses, were
waiting without to know when it was her pleasure to attend to their
business.
With characteristic courage Rachel answered, "Now." Her knowledge of law
was, it is true, limited to what, for lack of anything more exciting, she
had read in some handbooks belonging to her father, who had been a justice
of the peace in the Cape Colony, and to a few cases which she had seen
tried in a rough-and-ready fashion at Durban, to which must be added an
intimate acquaintance with Kaffir customs.
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