cks in the flesh like a hooked thorn, or a tick from
the grass, and cannot be unfastened. You spoke to the Master
about it and he spoke to me."

This time I nodded in assent.

"I do not blame you, Macumazahn; indeed now I see that you were
wise, for what right has a poor black doctoress to seek the love,
or even to look upon the face of the great white lady whom for a
little while Fate has caused to walk upon the same path with her?
But yesterday I forgot that, Macumazahn, for you see we are all
of us, not one self, but many selves, and each self has its times
of rule. Nombe alive and well was one woman, Nombe dying is
another, and doubtless Nombe dead will be a third, unless, as she
prays, she should sleep for ever.

"Macumazahn, those words of Heddana's were to me what gall is to
sweet milk. My blood clotted and my heart turned sour. It was
not against her that I was angry, because that can never happen,
but against Mauriti and against you. My Spirit whispered in my
ear. It said, 'If Mauriti and Macumazahn were dead the lady
Heddana would be left alone in a strange land. Then she would
learn to rest upon you as upon a stick, and learn to love the
stick on which she rested, though it be so rough and homely.'
But how can I kill them, I asked of my Spirit, and myself escape
death?

"'Poison is forbidden to you by the pact between us,' answered my
Spirit, 'yet I will show you a way, who am bound to serve you in
all things good or ill.'

"Then we nodded to each other in my breast, Macumazahn, and I
waited for what should happen who knew that my Spirit would not
lie. Yes, I waited for a chance to kill you both, forgetting, as
the wicked forget in their madness, that even if I were not found
out, soon or late Heddana would guess the truth and then, even if
she had learned to love me a thousand times more than she ever
could, would come to hate me as a mother hates a snake that has
slain her child. Or even if she never learned or guessed in
life, after death she would learn and hunt me and spit on me from
world to world as a traitoress and a murderer, one who has sinned
past pardon."

Here she seemed to grow faint and I turned to seek for help. But
she caught hold of my coat and said--

"Hear me out, Macumazahn, or I will run after you till I fall and
die."

So thinking it best, I stayed and she went on--

"My Spirit, which must be an evil one since Zikali gave it me
when I was made a doctoress, dealt