Samoan girls who accompanied her. Yet to all of us
who lived in Matautu the greatest charms of this curly-haired half-caste
were the rich, sweet voice and gay laugh that brightened up her
dark-hued countenance as we passed her on the path and returned her
cheerful "Talofa, _alii!_" with some merry jest. And, although none of
us had any inclination to go into her father's pub. and let _him_ serve
us with a bottle of Pilsener, Luisa's laughing face and curly head
generally had attraction enough to secure, in the course of the day,
a good many half-dollars for the 50lb. beef-keg which was Black Tom's
treasury.

*****

It gave us a shock one day to see Luisa emerging from the mission chapel
with a white-haired old man by her side--married. The matter had been
arranged very quietly. For about two months previously this ancient had
been one of Black Tom's boarders. He was from New Zealand, and had come
to Samoa to invest his money in trade, and being, perhaps, of a retiring
and quiet disposition the sight of Mr. Thomas Tilton's innocent-looking
dwelling attracted him thither. Anyhow, old Dermott remained there, and
it was noticeable that, from the day of his arrival, Tamasi Uliuli
exacted the most rigid performance of morning and evening devotions by
his family, and that the nightly scenes of riot and howling drunkenness,
that had theretofore characterised the "hotel," had unaccountably toned
down. In fact, burly old Alvord, the consular interpreter, who had been
accustomed to expostulate with Tom for the number of prostrate figures,
redolent of bad rum, lying outside on the path in the early morning,
showing by the scarcity of their attire that they had been "gone
through" by thieving natives, expressed the opinion that Tom was either
going mad, or "was getting consairned" about his sinful soul.

*****

The knowledge of the fact that old Dermott had so much worldly wealth
stowed away in his camphor-wood trunk, may have had (doubtless it did)
the effect of causing this remarkable change in Tom's daily conduct.
Dermott, in his way, was sourly religious; and, although not
understanding a word of Samoan, was fond of attending the native church
at Apia--always in the wake of Luisa, Toe-o-le-Sasa, and other young
girls. His solemn, wrinkled visage, with deep-set eyes, ever steadily
fixed upon the object of his affection, proved a source of much
diversion to the native congregation, and poor Luisa was subjected to
the usual S