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"Of course they will come to a bad end, Macumazahn," she went on in a
soft, thick voice, "for I and all with whom I have to do were 'torn out
of the reeds' [i.e. created] that way. And that's why I won't tempt you
to run away with me any more, as I meant to do when I saw you, because
it is true, Macumazahn you are the only man I ever liked or ever shall
like; and you know I could make you run away with me if I chose,
although I am black and you are white--oh, yes, before to-morrow
morning. But I won't do it; for why should I catch you in my unlucky
web and bring you into all sorts of trouble among my people and your
own? Go you your road, Macumazahn, and I will go mine as the wind blows
me. And now give me a cup of water and let me be away--a cup of water,
no more. Oh, do not be afraid for me, or melt too much, lest I should
melt also. I have an escort waiting over yonder hill. There, thank you
for your water, Macumazahn, and good night. Doubtless we shall meet
again ere long, and-- I forgot; the Little Wise One said he would like
to have a talk with you. Good night, Macumazahn, good night. I trust
that you did a profitable trade with Umbezi my father and Masapo my
husband. I wonder why such men as these should have been chosen to be
my father and my husband. Think it over, Macumazahn, and tell me when
next we meet. Give me that pretty mirror, Macumazahn; when I look in it
I shall see you as well as myself, and that will please me--you don't
know how much. I thank you. Good night."
In another minute I was watching her solitary little figure, now wrapped
again in the hooded kaross, as it vanished over the brow of the rise
behind us, and really, as she went, I felt a lump rising in my throat.
Notwithstanding all her wickedness--and I suppose she was wicked--there
was something horribly attractive about Mameena.
When she had gone, taking my only looking-glass with her, and the lump
in my throat had gone also, I began to wonder how much fact there was in
her story. She had protested so earnestly that she told me all the
truth that I felt sure there must be something left behind. Also I
remembered she had said Zikali wanted to see me. Well, the end of it
was I took a moonlight walk up that dreadful gorge, into which not even
Scowl would accompany me, because he declared that the place was well
known to be haunted by imikovu, or spectres who have been raised from
the dead by wizards.
It was a long and disagreeable walk, and somehow I felt very depressed
and insignificant as I trudged on between those gigantic cliffs, passing
now through patches of bright moonlight and now through deep pools of
shadow, threading my way among clumps of bush or round the bases of tall
pillars of piled-up stones, till at length I came to the overhanging
cliffs at the end, which frowned down on me like the brows of some
titanic demon.
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