uld not think it.

STEWARD. You do not understand--Listen, I am not bad, am I?

SOKITI. But we do not want to kill you.

STEWARD. Let me speak. You remember Kob the black. He thought me bad.

NOURM. Yes.

STEWARD. And if he had killed me?

SOKITI. We are not blacks--

STEWARD. You do not understand me. Consider. He thought me bad. I am not
bad. What you were saying, would justify him if he had killed me.

_They consider._

SOKITI. I understand. You say: If the slave had killed me--no, it is not
that.

SATNI. Human life must be respected.

_Gravely they make sign of acquiescence, to escape further
torment. Nourm picks up a package he had brought and turns
to go out unobserved._

STEWARD. What are you carrying there?

NOURM. Nothing, 'tis mine--

BITIOU. That is a necklace--show. [_Begins to open the package_].

NOURM. Yes, a necklace.

SATNI. From whom did you take it?

NOURM. From the neighboring master.

SATNI. Do you think you did well?

NOURM [_hesitating_] Why--yes.

SATNI. You are wrong.

NOURM. Be not afraid, no one saw me.

SATNI. It is wrong.

NOURM. No. What can wrong me, is wrong. Since no one saw me, they will
not punish me. So it is not wrong.

SATNI. Wrong not to you, but to the neighboring master.

NOURM. He has many others.

SOKITI. Has had them for years, he has! Nourm never had one. Not just.
I, I never had, this--[_He holds up a bracelet_].

SATNI. You have taken this bracelet!

SOKITI [_delighted_] It is mine.

SATNI. We are content.

_They laugh._

NOURM. And Bitiou--

SATNI AND SOKITI. Yes, Bitiou--

NOURM. He took the best thing.

STEWARD. What?

BITIOU. A woman.

STEWARD. By force?

BITIOU. No woman would come willingly with Bitiou.

SOKITI. But she escaped from him.

BITIOU. Yes. [_He weeps_].

SATNI. You must give back the necklace and this bracelet to the
neighboring master.

NOURM. Give back, but he has others!

SATNI. You cannot make yourself the judge of that. If you were selling
perfumes, for instance, would you think it natural that a man should
come and take them from you, because you had plenty and he had none?

NOURM. You tell me hard things.

SATNI. You must give back this bracelet, Sokiti.

SOKITI. Yes, master.

SATNI. And you the necklace.

NOURM. Yes, master.

_A sorrowful pause._

SATNI. See, you are sad. You perceive that you did wrong.

SOKITI. Yes, we did wrong--

SATNI. Ah!