high or low; thinking,
too, that I was a free man now--a prosperous, respected, looked-up-to
man, and an ex-Councillor with a home that many a woman would consider
well worth sharing. I wondered if Miss Nelson up at the Mission would
consider a man as unrefined as I was and thirty-seven years old, she so
sweet and young and with such gentle, winning ways. She was a governess
to their children, and that made me think she would, for no woman likes
to be a dependent and at the beck and call of another. I sat there
dreaming of her, and of the place nicely fixed up, and of us driving out
of a Sunday to Vailele in a smart little buggy, with me reelected to the
Council, and people saying: "How d'ye do, won't you drop in a
moment"--to me and Miss Nelson, married.

If this sounds wrong, remember Rosie had been no wife to me for three
years--only a torment and a disgrace--and I deserved some credit for
having stood it like I did. I had never dared have such thoughts before,
though I'd often remarked what a pretty creature Miss Nelson was, just
like a man does without anything further in his head. Yet looking back
on it, and the few times she had been in the store when we had spoken
together, I kind of felt she liked me, and she had certainly never been
in any hurry to leave; with this much to go on, and the fact that she
always smiled at me most winsome the few times we passed each other on
the street, I couldn't help thinking I had made a start without my
knowing it, and that if I followed it up hard this dream of her and me
might be made to come true.

I was turning this over in my mind when a squall of rain came tearing
along, the sky all black with it, and the roof hammering like a boiler
factory. In Samoa you needn't look out of the window to see if it is
raining. It comes down deafening, and the iron roars with the weight and
smash of it. This was how I didn't notice Doc till he stood right there
beside me. There was something awful strange and grave about him, and I
give a little jump I was that taken by surprise.

He lit a cigar, and waited very impatient for the squall to pass; and as
he went to the window and beat a little tattoo on it with his finger
nail, I noticed he was all dressed up like I'd never seen him before.
Then he came back, looking at me very steadfast, and says: "Well, Ben,
you're out of the woods at last."

"Yes, thank the Lord!" says I.

"Same here," he says, meaning himself. "When the mail comes