The covenant - James A. Michener [489]
He and others like him raised such a howl about printing the Bible in anything but pristine Dutch that the project was dropped, nationally, but not in Venloo. Krause rode out from Venloo to meet with the Vrymeer people, and told them, 'We must eliminate all areas in which we are subservient. No more English, except what the law demands. No more Dutch. All the damned Hollanders thrown on a ship and sent back to Amsterdam. We are Afrikaners, and whether General de Groot likes it or not, one of these days we'll have our own Bible.'
He spoke with such force, and in defense of a program so needed in this community, that Johanna van Doorn listened with growing joy. This was what she believed. Her liking for Mr. Amberson had been physical only; spiritually she had been repelled by his Englishness. But here was a fiery young man whose eye was on the future, the only future that made any sense for South Africa.
She resumed taking Detlev to school on Monday mornings, arriving even earlier than she had in those first tender days with Mr. Amberson, and she came with a firmness Detlev had not seen before. Her eyes glowed as
she supported the new teacher in all he attempted, and three times she invited him to Vrymeer for long discussions and good boboties. 'I think Mr. Krause has lost the battle,' Detlev joked one night after the schoolteacher had left for Venloo. Johanna, disregarding his teasing, said nothing, and during Krause's next visit at the lake, Detlev himself fell under the spell of this dynamic man.
'What we must have in this country,' he cried with expanding excitement, 'is a system of order. Indians, Coloureds, blacks, all in their proper place, all obedient to the wise laws we pass. And I don't want Englishmen passing them, either. I want Afrikaners in all positions of decision.' When Detlev heard these words he realized that Mr. Krause, starting from his own experiences, had discovered the principle which he, Detlev, had seen in the glass of jellies. They both believed in discipline and the ascendancy of the Afrikaner Volk.
'What was that?' General de Groot asked when Detlev first used the phrase in the kitchen.
'Mr. Krause uses it all the time. It means the People, the secret force of the Race that makes us different from the English or the Kaffir.'
'I like that word,' De Groot said, and soon he was speaking about the mission of the Afrikaner Volk.
Detlev was not surprised when at the end of only five weeks Mr. Krause came nervously to the kitchen to inform the men: 'Johanna and I seek to marry. I know she's four years older, but we love each other. We have work to do, and I ask your permission.' It was grantedby the general, by her father, and most enthusiastically by her brother.
The wedding ceremony was performed by a newcomer to the community, a man who added much to the quality of Venloo. He was the Reverend Barend Brongersma, a graduate of Stellenbosch, the prestigious university of the Cape, and a most excellent young man. He was thirty-one when he took over the Venloo church, tallish, well proportioned, with very black hair and deep-set eyes to match. His outstanding characteristic was a resonant voice which he had carefully cultivated so that it could range downward from a high, impassioned plea to a thundering middle accusation to a solid reassuring affirmation. It was obvious, when one heard him preach, that he gave much thought to his sermons and that he was a young man who would surely go far in the management of the South African church. He spoke with great conviction, outlining his arguments so that anyone could follow, and buttressing them so firmly that everyone had to agree. He was as fine a predikant as the Dutch Reformed Church offered in this period, and his stay in Venloo would be limited, for he would be needed in some larger community.
He was married to a woman much like himself: solid good looks, eager, a winning smile, and unafraid