esume the conversation when, struck by an unexpected change
in the expression of his guest's countenance, he turned his head and saw
Nina standing in the doorway.

After Mrs. Almayer's retreat from the field of battle, Nina, with a
contemptuous exclamation, "It's only a trader," had lifted the conquered
curtain and now stood in full light, framed in the dark background on the
passage, her lips slightly parted, her hair in disorder after the
exertion, the angry gleam not yet faded out of her glorious and sparkling
eyes. She took in at a glance the group of white-clad lancemen standing
motionless in the shadow of the far-off end of the verandah, and her gaze
rested curiously on the chief of that imposing _cortege_. He stood,
almost facing her, a little on one side, and struck by the beauty of the
unexpected apparition had bent low, elevating his joint hands above his
head in a sign of respect accorded by Malays only to the great of this
earth. The crude light of the lamp shone on the gold embroidery of his
black silk jacket, broke in a thousand sparkling rays on the jewelled
hilt of his kriss protruding from under the many folds of the red sarong
gathered into a sash round his waist, and played on the precious stones
of the many rings on his dark fingers. He straightened himself up
quickly after the low bow, putting his hand with a graceful ease on the
hilt of his heavy short sword ornamented with brilliantly dyed fringes of
horsehair. Nina, hesitating on the threshold, saw an erect lithe figure
of medium height with a breadth of shoulder suggesting great power. Under
the folds of a blue turban, whose fringed ends hung gracefully over the
left shoulder, was a face full of determination and expressing a reckless
good-humour, not devoid, however, of some dignity. The squareness of
lower jaw, the full red lips, the mobile nostrils, and the proud carriage
of the head gave the impression of a being half-savage, untamed, perhaps
cruel, and corrected the liquid softness of the almost feminine eye, that
general characteristic of the race. Now, the first surprise over, Nina
saw those eyes fixed upon her with such an uncontrolled expression of
admiration and desire that she felt a hitherto unknown feeling of
shyness, mixed with alarm and some delight, enter and penetrate her whole
being.

Confused by those unusual sensations she stopped in the doorway and
instinctively drew the lower part of the curtain across her face, lea