ver so
cunningly woven of green and yellow bamboo, for your ring-doves,
under the attap of the great eaves above the door."

She turned wearily toward her lover, and the bright look faded from
her comely face. With a half-uttered sigh she drew off her sandals
and tucked them carefully beneath the silver zone that held her sarong
in place.

"Anak," he said softly, as they left the hot, red streets, filled
with lumbering bullock-carts and omnipresent rickshas, "why do you
look away when I talk of our marriage? Is it because the Koran teaches
modesty in woman, or is it because you are over-proud of your husband
when you see him among other men?"

But the girl was not listening.

He looked at her keenly, and as he saw the red blood mantle her cheek,
he smiled and went on:--

"It was good of you to wear the sarong I gave you, and your best
kabaya and the flowers I like in your hair. I heard more than one
say that it showed you would make a good wife in spite of our knowing
one another before marriage."

"You think that it was for you that I put on all this bravery?" she
asked, looking him straight in the face. "Am I not to be your wife? Can
I not dress in honor of the young Prince and--Allah?"

He turned to stammer a reply. The hot blood mounted to his temples,
and he grasped the girl's arm so that she cried out with pain.

"You are to be my wife, and I your master. It is my wish that you
should ever dress in honor of our rulers and our Allah, for in showing
honor to those above you, you honor your husband. I do not understand
you at all times, but I intend that you shall understand me. Sudah!"

"Tuan Allah Suka!" (The Lord Allah has willed it), she murmured,
and they plodded on through the hot sand in silence.

After his return they saw the Prince often, and once when Anak came
down to the wharf to bring a durian to the captain of the launch
from her father, the old punghulo, she met him face to face, and he
touched her cheek with his jewelled fingers, and said she had grown
much prettier since he left.

Noa was not angry at the Prince, rather he was proud of his notice,
but a sinister light burned in his eyes as he saw the flushed face
and drooping head of the girl.

And once the Prince passed by the punghulo's home on his way into
the jungle in search of a tiger, and inquired for his daughter. Anak
treasured the remembrance of these little attentions, and pondered
over them day after day, as she worked by