e enjoyed in the settlement.

* * * * *

"I was a slave, and you shall be a queen," went on Mrs. Almayer, looking
straight before her; "but remember men's strength and their weakness.
Tremble before his anger, so that he may see your fear in the light of
day; but in your heart you may laugh, for after sunset he is your slave."

"A slave! He! The master of life! You do not know him, mother."

Mrs. Almayer condescended to laugh contemptuously.

"You speak like a fool of a white woman," she exclaimed. "What do you
know of men's anger and of men's love? Have you watched the sleep of men
weary of dealing death? Have you felt about you the strong arm that
could drive a kriss deep into a beating heart? Yah! you are a white
woman, and ought to pray to a woman-god!"

"Why do you say this? I have listened to your words so long that I have
forgotten my old life. If I was white would I stand here, ready to go?
Mother, I shall return to the house and look once more at my father's
face."

"No!" said Mrs. Almayer, violently. "No, he sleeps now the sleep of gin;
and if you went back he might awake and see you. No, he shall never see
you. When the terrible old man took you away from me when you were
little, you remember--"

"It was such a long time ago," murmured Nina.

"I remember," went on Mrs. Almayer, fiercely. "I wanted to look at your
face again. He said no! I heard you cry and jumped into the river. You
were his daughter then; you are my daughter now. Never shall you go back
to that house; you shall never cross this courtyard again. No! no!"

Her voice rose almost to a shout. On the other side of the creek there
was a rustle in the long grass. The two women heard it, and listened for
a while in startled silence. "I shall go," said Nina, in a cautious but
intense whisper. "What is your hate or your revenge to me?"

She moved towards the house, Mrs. Almayer clinging to her and trying to
pull her back.

"Stop, you shall not go!" she gasped.

Nina pushed away her mother impatiently and gathered up her skirts for a
quick run, but Mrs. Almayer ran forward and turned round, facing her
daughter with outstretched arms.

"If you move another step," she exclaimed, breathing quickly, "I shall
cry out. Do you see those lights in the big house? There sit two white
men, angry because they cannot have the blood of the man you love. And
in those dark houses," she continued, more calmly as she pointed towar