f
closed again, and the pine branches waved and soughed gently to the
breeze.

And then the dead grey of the wall of the room changed to a bright,
shimmering white--the white of an island beach as it changes, under the
red flush of the morn, from the shadows of the night to a broad belt of
gleaming silver--and the sough of the pine-tree by the window deepened
into the humming music of the trade-wind when it passes through the
sleeping palms, and a million branches awake trembling to its first
breaths and shake off in pearly showers the dews of the night. Again she
raced along the clinking sand with her childish, half-naked companions,
and heard the ceaseless throb of the beating surf upon the windward
reef, and saw the flash of gold and scarlet of a flock of parrakeets
that with shrill, whistling note, vanished through the groves of
cocoa-nuts as they sped mountain wards. Then her latent native soul
awoke and made her desperate.

*****

Ere two days had passed she was missing, and six weeks later a little
white-painted schooner hove-to off one of the Paumotu Group, lowered a
boat, and landed her amongst the wondering natives.

The dark-faced, black-bearded man who steered the boat held her hand a
moment ere he said good-bye.

"It is not too late, Loise."

She raised her face and laughed scornfully.

"To go back? To go back to hear the old man who was a father and the
good woman who was a mother to me, tell me that they hated and despised
me!" And then quick, scalding tears.

The man's face flushed. "No, not that, but," with an oath, "look here,
if you'll come with me I'll head the schooner for Tahiti, and as soon as
she swings to her anchor we will be ashore and married."

She shook her head. "Let me go, Captain Lemaire. Whatever comes to me,
'tis I alone who must answer for it. And so--good-bye."

*****

She stood and watched the boat hoisted to the davits, and saw the
schooner slowly gather way, and then glide past and disappear round
the palm-crowned point. Then she turned with streaming eyes and choking
voice to the brown-skinned people that stood around her, and spoke to
them in her mother's tongue.

So ended the sixteen years' life of the beautiful Miss Lambert and began
that of Loise, the half-blood.

LOISE, THE HALF-BLOOD

There was a wild rush of naked, scurrying feet, and a quick panting
of brown bosoms along the winding path that led to Baldwin's house at