I went outside and took Maggie by the arm; we walked
out of the village in silence; Glahn went back into the hut again at
once.
"What were you talking with him again for?" I asked Maggie.
She made no answer.
I was thoroughly desperate. My heart beat so I could hardly breathe. I
had never seen Maggie look so lovely as she did then--never seen a real
white girl so beautiful. And I forgot she was a Tamil--forgot everything
for her sake.
"Answer me," I said. "What were you talking to him for?"
"I like him best," she said.
"You like him better than me?"
"Yes."
Oh, indeed! She liked him better than me, though I was at least as good
a man! Hadn't I always been kind to her, and given her money and
presents? And what had he done?
"He makes fun of you; he says you're always chewing things," I said.
She did not understand that, and I explained it better; how she had a
habit of putting everything in her mouth and chewing it, and how Glahn
laughed at her for it. That made more impression on her than all the
rest I said.
"Look here, Maggie," I went on, "you shall be mine for always. Wouldn't
you like that? I've been thinking it over. You shall go with me when I
leave here; I will marry you, do you hear? and we'll go to our own
country and live there.
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