Will you kindly allow me to send
your boy for Noa Noah? I wish him to launch the whale-boat. Or shall I
go myself for him?"
Both were now on their feet, she with flushed cheeks and angry eyes, he,
puzzled, vexed, and alarmed. The black boy stood like a statue--a plum-
black statue--taking no interest in the transactions of these
incomprehensible whites, but dreaming with calm eyes of a certain bush
village high on the jungle slopes of Malaita, with blue smoke curling up
from the grass houses against the gray background of an oncoming mountain-
squall.
"But you won't do anything so foolish--" he began.
"There you go again," she cried.
"I didn't mean it that way, and you know I didn't." He was speaking
slowly and gravely. "And that other thing, that not permitting--it is
only a manner of speaking. Of course I am not your guardian. You know
you can go to Guvutu if you want to"--"or to the devil," he was almost
tempted to add. "Only, I should deeply regret it, that is all. And I am
very sorry that I should have said anything that hurt you. Remember, I
am an Englishman."
Joan smiled and sat down again.
"Perhaps I have been hasty," she admitted. "You see, I am intolerant of
restraint. If you only knew how I have been compelled to fight for my
freedom.
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