me, she threw her arms about me and kissed me on the
lips, and I think I kissed her back, but really I am not sure what I
did or said, for my head swam. When it cleared again she was standing in
front of me, looking at me reflectively.

"Now, Macumazahn," she said, with a little smile that both mocked and
dazzled, "the poor black girl has you, the wise, experienced white man,
in her net, and I will show you that she can be generous. Do you think
that I do not read your heart, that I do not know that you believe I
am dragging you down to shame and ruin? Well, I spare you, Macumazahn,
since you have kissed me and spoken words which already you may have
forgotten, but which I do not forget. Go your road, Macumazahn, and I
go mine, since the proud white man shall not be stained with my black
touch. Go your road; but one thing I forbid you--to believe that you
have been listening to lies, and that I have merely played off a woman's
arts upon you for my own ends. I love you, Macumazahn, as you will never
be loved till you die, and I shall never love any other man, however
many I may marry. Moreover, you shall promise me one thing--that once in
my life, and once only, if I wish it, you shall kiss me again before all
men. And now, lest you should be moved to folly and forget your white
man's pride, I bid you farewell, O Macumazana. When we meet again it
will be as friends only."

Then she went, leaving me feeling smaller than ever I felt in my life,
before or since--even smaller than when I walked into the presence of
old Zikali the Wise. Why, I wondered, had she first made a fool of me,
and then thrown away the fruits of my folly? To this hour I cannot quite
answer the question, though I believe the explanation to be that she did
really care for me, and was anxious not to involve me in trouble and her
plottings; also she may have been wise enough to see that our natures
were as oil and water and would never blend.

CHAPTER V. TWO BUCKS AND THE DOE

It may be thought that, as a sequel to this somewhat remarkable scene in
which I was absolutely bowled over--perhaps bowled out would be a better
term--by a Kafir girl who, after bending me to her will, had the genius
to drop me before I repented, as she knew I would do so soon as her back
was turned, thereby making me look the worst of fools, that my relations
with that young lady would have been strained. But not a bit of it. When
next we met, which was on the followin