himself had eaten from on many a similar progress. And it was the
same for special delicacies that were for Lilolilo and the Princess
alone--for his nelu, and the ake, and the palu, and the alaala.
And his kahilis were waved over me, and his attendants were mine,
and he was mine; and from my flower-crowned hair to my happy feet I
was a woman loved."

Once again Bella's small teeth pressed into her underlip, as she
gazed vacantly seaward and won control of herself and her memories.

"It was on, and on, through all Kona, and all Kau, from Hoopuloa
and Kapua to Honuapo and Punaluu, a life-time of living compressed
into two short weeks. A flower blooms but once. That was my time
of bloom--Lilolilo beside me, myself on my wonderful Hilo, a queen,
not of Hawaii, but of Lilolilo and Love. He said I was a bubble of
colour and beauty on the black back of Leviathan; that I was a
fragile dewdrop on the smoking crest of a lava flow; that I was a
rainbow riding the thunder cloud . . . "

Bella paused for a moment.

"I shall tell you no more of what he said to me," she declared
gravely; "save that the things he said were fire of love and
essence of beauty, and that he composed hulas to me, and sang them
to me, before all, of nights under the stars as we lay on our mats
at the feasting; and I on the Makaloa mat of Lilolilo.

"And it was on to Kilauea--the dream so near its ending; and of
course we tossed into the pit of sea-surging lava our offerings to
the Fire-Goddess of maile leis and of fish and hard poi wrapped