"Say, Vernoon," she asked in her languorous voice, "can you not stir
a yard without that ugly black dog at your heels? Do you bring him to
protect your back? If so, what is the need? Have I not sworn that you
are safe in my land?"

Alan made Jeekie interpret this speech, then answered that the reason
was that he knew but little of her tongue.

"Can I not teach it to you alone, then, without this low fellow hearing
all my words? Well, it will not be for long," and she looked at Jeekie
in a way that made him feel very uncomfortable. "Get behind us, dog, and
you, Vernoon, come sit on these cushions at my side. Nay, not there, I
said upon the cushions--so. Now I will take off that ugly mask of yours,
for I would look into your eyes. I find them pleasant, Vernoon," and
without waiting for his permission, she sat up and did so. "Ah!" she
went on, "we shall be happy when we are married, shall we not? Do not
be afraid, Vernoon, I will not eat out your heart as I have those of the
men that went before you. We will live together until we are old, and
die together at last, and together be born again, and so on and on till
the end which even I cannot foresee. Why do you not smile, Vernoon, and
say that you are pleased, and that you will be happy with me who loved
you from the moment that my eyes fell upon you in sleep? Speak, Vernoon,
lest I should grow angry with you."

"I don't know what to say," answered Alan despairingly through Jeekie,
"the honour is too great for me, who am but a wandering trader who came
here to barter Little Bonsa against the gold I need"--to support my wife
and family, he was about to add, then remembering that this statement
might not be well received, substituted, "to support my old parents and