good-looking youth as much for herself as for her child, and saw nothing
wrong in this. From the day when Okoya for the first time trod the roof
of her dwelling in order to protect Mitsha, she had set her cap for him.
But she knew that there was no love on the part of Tyope for the
relatives of Okoya, paternal or maternal, and she was too much afraid
of him to venture open consent to a union that might be against his
wishes. In her mind Tyope was the only stumbling-block in the path of
the two young people; that is, in the way of her own desires.

She had consequently set to work with a great deal of tact and prudence
in approaching Tyope about the matter. After a number of preparatory
skirmishes, she at last ventured to tell him of it. To her astonishment
he took it quite composedly, saying neither yes nor no, and displaying
no feeling at all. He saw not the least objection to having Okoya visit
her house as often as he might please; in fact, he treated the matter
with great indifference. This was a decided relief to her, and she
anxiously waited for Okoya's first visit to impress him most favourably
regarding not merely herself but her husband.

Tyope indeed did not attach the slightest importance to Okoya
personally. The youth had no value for him at present; he did not
dislike him; he did not notice him at all. The boy was as
unobjectionable to him as any one else whom he did not need for his
purposes. But there were points connected with the union that affected
Tyope's designs very materially, and these would come out in course of
time, although he foresaw them already. In the first place,
intermarriage between the clans of Tanyi and Tyame was not favourable to
his scheme, which consisted in expelling gradually or violently four
clusters,--Tanyi, Tyame, Huashpa, and Tzitz, from the Rito. The
last-named cluster he wanted to get rid of on account of Shotaye, whom
he feared as much as he hated; the other three he wished to dispossess
of their houses, which were the best secured against decay on the
Tyuonyi, in order to lodge therein his own relatives and their
partisans. Had Okoya aspired to the hand of a daughter of the Turquoise
clan, Tyope would have been in favour of his pretensions at once.

On the other hand, Okoya was very young; he might be flexible if
properly handled; and in case the boy, whose father was already a
Koshare and completely under Tyope's influence, could be induced to join
the society of the