ka was in
some ways not far removed from animal, which may perhaps account for the
ferocity of her jealousy of her mistress's affection.

Shaking off my presentiments of evil, I entered the centre hut. Mr.
Carson was resting on the sofa, and by him knelt Stella holding his
hand, and her head resting on his breast. I saw at once that she had
been telling him of what had come about between us; nor was I sorry,
for it is a task that a would-be son-in-law is generally glad to do by
deputy.

"Come here, Allan Quatermain," he said, almost sternly, and my heart
gave a jump, for I feared lest he might be about to require me to go
about my business. But I came.

"Stella tells me," he went on, "that you two have entered into a
marriage engagement. She tells me also that she loves you, and that you
say that you love her."

"I do indeed, sir," I broke in; "I love her truly; if ever a woman was
loved in this world, I love her."

"I thank Heaven for it," said the old man. "Listen, my children. Many
years ago a great shame and sorrow fell upon me, so great a sorrow that,
as I sometimes think, it affected my brain. At any rate, I determined
to do what most men would have considered the act of a madman, to go far
away into the wilderness with my only child, there to live remote from
civilization and its evils. I did so; I found this place, and here we
have lived for many years, happily enough, and perhaps not without doing
good in our generation, but still in a way unnatural to our race and
status. At first I thought I would let my daughter grow up in a state of
complete ignorance, that she should be Nature's child. But as time went
on, I saw the folly and the wickedness of my plan. I had no right to
degrade her to the level of the savages around me, for if the fruit
of the tree of knowledge is a bitter fruit, still it teaches good from
evil. So I educated her as well as I was able, till in the end I knew
that in mind, as in body, she was in no way inferior to her sisters, the
children of the civilized world. She grew up and entered into womanhood,
and then it came into my mind that I was doing her a bitter wrong, that
I was separating her from her kind and keeping her in a wilderness where
she could find neither mate nor companion. But though I knew this, I
could not yet make up my mind to return to active life; I had grown to
love this place. I dreaded to return into the world I had abjured. Again
and again I put my resolutions