of waking trance, where
practical details as to the fitting out of the boats were mixed up with
vivid dreams of untold wealth, where the present misery of burning sun,
of the muddy and malodorous river bank disappeared in a gorgeous vision
of a splendid future existence for himself and Nina. He hardly saw Nina
during these last days, although the beloved daughter was ever present in
his thoughts. He hardly took notice of Dain, whose constant presence in
his house had become a matter of course to him now they were connected by
a community of interests. When meeting the young chief he gave him an
absent greeting and passed on, seemingly wishing to avoid him, bent upon
forgetting the hated reality of the present by absorbing himself in his
work, or else by letting his imagination soar far above the tree-tops
into the great white clouds away to the westward, where the paradise of
Europe was awaiting the future Eastern millionaire. And Maroola, now the
bargain was struck and there was no more business to be talked over,
evidently did not care for the white man's company. Yet Dain was always
about the house, but he seldom stayed long by the riverside. On his
daily visits to the white man the Malay chief preferred to make his way
quietly through the central passage of the house, and would come out into
the garden at the back, where the fire was burning in the cooking shed,
with the rice kettle swinging over it, under the watchful supervision of
Mrs. Almayer. Avoiding that shed, with its black smoke and the warbling
of soft, feminine voices, Dain would turn to the left. There, on the
edge of a banana plantation, a clump of palms and mango trees formed a
shady spot, a few scattered bushes giving it a certain seclusion into
which only the serving women's chatter or an occasional burst of laughter
could penetrate. Once in, he was invisible; and hidden there, leaning
against the smooth trunk of a tall palm, he waited with gleaming eyes and
an assured smile to hear the faint rustle of dried grass under the light
footsteps of Nina.

From the very first moment when his eyes beheld this--to him--perfection
of loveliness he felt in his inmost heart the conviction that she would
be his; he felt the subtle breath of mutual understanding passing between
their two savage natures, and he did not want Mrs. Almayer's encouraging
smiles to take every opportunity of approaching the girl; and every time
he spoke to her, every time he look