.

"Lord," said Bosambo, after a long thought, "go to your ship: presently
I will send to you a girl who thinks and speaks with great wisdom--and
if she talks with you, you shall learn more things than I can tell you."

To the _Zaire_ at sundown came D'riti, a girl of proper height, hollow
backed, bare to the waist, with a thin skirting of fine silk cloth which
her father had brought from the Coast, wound tightly about her, yet not
so tightly that it hampered her swaying, lazy walk. She stood before a
disconcerted Bones, one small hand resting on her hip, her chin (as
usual) tilted down at him from under lashes uncommonly long for a
native.

Also, this Bones saw, she was gifted with more delicate features than
the native woman can boast as a rule. The nose was straight and narrow,
the lips full, yet not of the negroid type. She was in fact a pure
Ochori woman, and the Ochori are related dimly to the Arabi tribes.

"Lord, Bosambo the King has sent me to speak about women," she said
simply.

"Doocidly awkward," said Bones to himself, and blushed.

"O, D'riti," he stammered, "it is true I wish to speak of women, for I
make a book that all white lords will read."

"Therefore have I come," she said. "Now listen, O my lord, whilst I tell
you of women, and of all they think, of their love for men and of the
strange way they show it. Also of children----"

"Look here," said Bones, loudly. "I don't want any--any--private
information, my child----"

Then realizing from her frown that she did not understand him, he
returned to Bomongo.

"Lord, I will say what is to be said," she remarked, meekly, "for you
have a gentle face and I see that your heart is very pure."

Then she began, and Bones listened with open mouth ... later he was to
feel his hair rise and was to utter gurgling protests, for she spoke
with primitive simplicity about things that are never spoken about at
all. He tried to check her, but she was not to be checked.

"Goodness, gracious heavens!" gasped Bones.

She told him of what women think of men, and of what men _think_ women
think of them, and there was a remarkable discrepancy if she spoke the
truth. He asked her if she was married.

"Lord," she said at last, eyeing him thoughtfully, "it is written that I
shall marry one who is greater than chiefs."

"I'll bet you will, too," thought Bones, sweating.

At parting she took his hand and pressed it to her cheek.

"Lord," she said, softly, "to-m