meet her; the four days of separation had
been very long to him.

"He was so good," Okoya at last succeeded in saying. Fresh tears came to
his eyes.

Mitsha merely nodded and covered her face with a corner of her wrap.

"Have you been to him?" he asked.

She nodded; Okoya continued,--

"To-morrow I will come again."

Eager nods, mingled with sobs and accompanied by rubbing of the eyes,
were her reply. The nodding proved that his call would be very, very
welcome. She uncovered her face, her eyes beamed through tears, and she
smiled. As sincerely as she felt her grief, the announcement that he
would return as soon as the mourning-time was over made her happy, and
her features expressed it. She went her way quietly, Okoya following her
with his eyes.

He longed to say to her, "Come with me, and let us go together to my
mother; she weeps so much." But it could not be; it was useless to
mention it. About his mother Okoya felt deeply concerned, for she did
not bear her grief as the others bore theirs. She was not noisy like the
rest. Utterly oblivious of her daily task, she neither cooked nor baked
nor cared for anything. Her husband and children had to go hungry, while
she sat in a corner sobbing and weeping. It was indeed a blessing for
her that she was able to weep; otherwise her reason might have given way
under the terrible and crushing blow. With the loss of her father she
felt as if lost forever, as if her only support, her only hope, had
gone. The past came back to her, not like an ugly dream, but as a
fearful reality threatening sure destruction. Between her and the
accusation which she felt certain had been fulminated against her before
the council, there stood henceforth no one, and at the end of the
mourning she expected to be dragged before the council at once and
condemned to death! And what sort of death? Exposed to public wrath as a
witch, bound and gagged, tied to a tree, with the rough bark lacerating
her breast, and then beaten, beaten to a jelly, rib broken after rib,
limb after limb, until the soul left the body's wreck under the curses
of bystanders. Oh, if she could only die now a swift, an honourable
death like that of her father!

If she could only have seen Shotaye! She expected the cave-woman surely
to come down to cheer her up. She felt a longing for her friend, a
desire to see her, to hear her voice. But day after day ran on, night
after night followed, and Shotaye did not come. It did n