given perfect satisfaction; and when I asked myself why the gladness of
the previous evening had forsaken me--why I was infected with this
new sadness when everything promised well for me, I found that it was
because my passion had greatly increased during the last few hours; even
during sleep it had been growing, and could no longer be fed by merely
dwelling in thought on the charms, moral and physical, of its object,
and by dreams of future fruition.

I concluded that it would be best for Rima's sake as well as my own to
spend a few of the days before setting out on our journey with my Indian
friends, who would be troubled at my long absence; and, accordingly,
next morning I bade good-bye to the old man, promising to return in
three or four days, and then started without seeing Rima, who had
quitted the house before her usual time. After getting free of the
woods, on casting back my eyes I caught sight of the girl standing under
an isolated tree watching me with that vague, misty, greenish appearance
she so frequently had when seen in the light shade at a short distance.

"Rima!" I cried, hurrying back to speak to her, but when I reached the
spot she had vanished; and after waiting some time, seeing and hearing
nothing to indicate that she was near me, I resumed my walk, half
thinking that my imagination had deceived me.

I found my Indian friends home again, and was not surprised to observe a
distinct change in their manner towards me. I had expected as much;
and considering that they must have known very well where and in whose
company I had been spending my time, it was not strange. Coming across
the savannah that morning I had first begun to think seriously of the
risk I was running. But this thought only served to prepare me for a new
condition of things; for now to go back and appear before Rima, and thus
prove myself to be a person not only capable of forgetting a promise
occasionally, but also of a weak, vacillating mind, was not to be
thought of for a moment.

I was received--not welcomed--quietly enough; not a question, not
a word, concerning my long absence fell from anyone; it was as if a
stranger had appeared among them, one about whom they knew nothing
and consequently regarded with suspicion, if not actual hostility. I
affected not to notice the change, and dipped my hand uninvited in the
pot to satisfy my hunger, and smoked and dozed away the sultry hours in
my hammock. Then I got my guitar and sp