ere the confirmation of the words just
said, for a feeling of grateful security lightened for her the weight of
sorrow at the hour of parting. She believed that he, the descendant of
many great Rajahs, the son of a great chief, the master of life and
death, knew the sunshine of life only in her presence. An immense wave
of gratitude and love welled forth out of her heart towards him. How
could she make an outward and visible sign of all she felt for the man
who had filled her heart with so much joy and so much pride? And in the
great tumult of passion, like a flash of lightning came to her the
reminiscence of that despised and almost forgotten civilisation she had
only glanced at in her days of restraint, of sorrow, and of anger. In
the cold ashes of that hateful and miserable past she would find the sign
of love, the fitting expression of the boundless felicity of the present,
the pledge of a bright and splendid future. She threw her arms around
Dain's neck and pressed her lips to his in a long and burning kiss. He
closed his eyes, surprised and frightened at the storm raised in his
breast by the strange and to him hitherto unknown contact, and long after
Nina had pushed her canoe into the river he remained motionless, without
daring to open his eyes, afraid to lose the sensation of intoxicating
delight he had tasted for the first time.

Now he wanted but immortality, he thought, to be the equal of gods, and
the creature that could open so the gates of paradise must be his--soon
would be his for ever!

He opened his eyes in time to see through the archway of creepers the
bows of his brig come slowly into view, as the vessel drifted past on its
way down the river. He must go on board now, he thought; yet he was loth
to leave the place where he had learned to know what happiness meant.
"Time yet. Let them go," he muttered to himself; and he closed his eyes
again under the red shower of scented petals, trying to recall the scene
with all its delight and all its fear.

He must have been able to join his brig in time, after all, and found
much occupation outside, for it was in vain that Almayer looked for his
friend's speedy return. The lower reach of the river where he so often
and so impatiently directed his eyes remained deserted, save for the
rapid flitting of some fishing canoe; but down the upper reaches came
black clouds and heavy showers heralding the final setting in of the
rainy season with its thunder