ur you. Here, in the presence of the council and army, he prays
of me to annul his sealing to you, and to send you back to the house of
your guardian, Hokosa the wizard."

Noma started, and her face grew hard.

"Is it so?" she said. "Then it would seem that I have lost favour in the
eyes of my lord the prince, or that some fairer woman has found it."

"Of these matters I know nothing," replied the king; "but this I know,
that if you seek justice you shall have it. Say but the word, and he to
whom you were promised in marriage shall take you in marriage, whether
he wills or wills it not."

At this speech, the face of Hafela was suddenly lit up as with the fire
of hope, while over that of Hokosa there passed another subtle change.
The girl glanced at them both and was silent for a while. Her breast
heaved and her white teeth bit upon her lip. To Owen, who noted all, it
was clear that rival passions were struggling in her heart: the passion
of power and the passion of love, or of some emotion which he did not
understand. Hokosa fixed his calm eyes upon her with a strange intensity
of gaze, and while he gazed his form quivered with a suppressed
excitement, much as a snake quivers that is about to strike its prey.
To the careless eye there was nothing remarkable about his look
and attitude; to the observer it was evident that both were full of
extraordinary purpose. He was talking to the girl, not with words, but
in some secret language that he and she understood alone. She started as
one starts who catches the tone of a well-remembered voice in a crowd of
strangers, and lifting her eyes from the ground, whither she had turned
them in meditation, she looked up at Hokosa.

Instantly her face began to change. The haughtiness and anger went out
of it, it grew troubled, the lips parted in a sigh. First she bent her
head and body towards him, then without more ado she walked to where he
stood and took him by the hand. Here, at some whispered word or sign,
she seemed to recover herself, and again resuming the character of a
proud offended beauty, she curtseyed to Umsuka, and spoke:--

"O King, as you see, I have made my choice. I will not force myself upon
a man who scorns me, no, not even to share his place and power, though
it is true that I love them both. Nay, I will return to Hokosa my
guardian, and to his wife, Zinti, who has been as my mother, and with
them be at peace."

"It is well," said the king, "and perhaps, gi