exile, the fresh beauty of this young Western wife, in
whom the frank artlessness of girlhood still lingered, appeared to him
like a superior creation. He forgot his vague longings in the inception
of a more tangible but equally unpractical passion. He remembered her
unconscious and spontaneous admiration of him; he dared to connect it
with her forgiving silence. If she had withheld her confidences from her
husband, he could hope--he knew not exactly what!

One afternoon Wachita put into his hand a folded note. With an
instinctive presentiment of its contents, Elijah turned red and
embarrassed in receiving it from the woman who was recognized as his
wife. But the impassive, submissive manner of this household drudge,
instead of touching his conscience, seemed to him a vulgar and brutal
acceptance of the situation that dulled whatever compunction he might
have had. He opened the note and read hurriedly as follows:--

"You took a great freedom with me the other day, and I am justified in
taking one with you now. I believe you understand English as well as I
do. If you want to explain that and your conduct to me, I will be at the
same place this afternoon. My friend will accompany me, but she need not
hear what you have to say."

Elijah read the letter, which might have been written by an ordinary
school-girl, as if it had conveyed the veiled rendezvous of a princess.
The reserve, caution, and shyness which had been the safeguard of his
weak nature were swamped in a flow of immature passion. He flew to the
interview with the eagerness and inexperience of first love. He was
completely at her mercy. So utterly was he subjugated by her presence
that she did not even run the risk of his passion. Whatever sentiment
might have mingled with her curiosity, she was never conscious of a
necessity to guard herself against it. At this second meeting she was
in full possession of his secret. He had told her everything; she had
promised nothing in return--she had not even accepted anything. Even
her actual after-relations to the denouement of his passion are still
shrouded in mystery.

Nevertheless, Elijah lived two weeks on the unsubstantial memory of this
meeting. What might have followed could not be known, for at the end of
that time an outrage--so atrocious that even the peaceful Minyos were
thrilled with savage indignation--was committed on the outskirts of the
village. An old chief, who had been specially selected to deal wit