but smiling, and with the colour returning to her cheeks. Of Thomas he
took no notice, but to Dorcas he said:

"Lady, I give you back your daughter. She is saved. Let her drink milk
and sleep."

Then Thomas, whose judgment and charity were shaken for a while, spoke,
saying:

"As a man and a father I thank you, Witch-doctor, but know that as a
priest I swear that I will never have more to do with you, who, I am
sure, by your arts, can command these reptiles to work your will and
have planned all this to shame me. No, not even if you lay dying would I
come to visit you."

Thus stormed Thomas in his wrath and humiliation, believing that he had
been the victim of a plot and not knowing that he would live bitterly to
regret his words.

"I see that you hate me, Teacher," said Menzi, "and though here I do not
find the gentleness you preach, I do not wonder; it is quite
natural. Were I you I should do the same. But you are Little Flower's
father--strange that she should have grown from such a seed--and though
we fight, for that reason I cannot hate you. Be not disturbed. Perhaps
it was the sucking of the wound and the grass tied round her finger
which saved her, not my spells and medicine. No, no, I cannot hate you,
although we fight for mastery, and you pelt me with vile words, saying
that I charmed a deadly _immamba_ to bite Little Flower whom I love,
that I might cure her and make a mock of you. Yet I do hate that snake
which bit the maiden Imba of its own wickedness, the hooded _immamba_