no reply to this sally, he glanced towards
her, to find that she had turned her back upon him and was sobbing in a
corner. Leaving his task of clearing out the sea-chest, he went towards
her, and said, "I'm awfully sorry, Amiria, if I've said anything that
hurt your feelings. I really didn't mean to." He had yet to learn that
a Maori can bear anything more easily than laughter which seems to be
derisive.

As the girl continued to cry, he placed his hand upon her shoulder.
"Really, Amiria, I meant nothing. I would be the last person on earth
to hurt your feelings. I don't forget what I owe you. I can never repay
you. If I have been clumsy, I ask your pardon." He held up her head, and
looked into her tear-stained face. "You'll forgive me, won't you?"

The girl, her still untutored nature half-hidden beneath a deceptive
covering of _Pakeha_ culture, broke into a torrent of Maori quite
unintelligible to the white man, but as it ended in a bright smile
bursting out from behind her tears, he knew that peace was made.

"Thank you," he said; "we're friends again."

In a moment, she had thrown her arms about him and had burst into a
rhapsody in her native tongue, and, though he understood not one word of
it, he knew intuitively that it was an expression of passionate
affection.

The situation was now more awkward than before. To rebuff her a second
time would be to break his word and wound her more deeply than ever. So
he let this new burst of feeling spend itself, and waited for her to
return to her more civilised self.

When she did, she spoke in English. "You mustn't judge me by the
_Pakeha_ girls you know. My people aren't like yours--we have different
ways. White girls are cold and silent when they feel most--I know them:
I went to school with them--but _we_ show our feelings. Besides, I have
a claim on you which no white girl has. No white girl would have pulled
you out of the surf, as I did. And if I showed I cared for you then, why
shouldn't I show it now? Perhaps the _Pakeha_ would blame me, but I
can't always be thinking of your _ritenga_. In the town I do as the
white woman does; out here I follow the Maori _ritenga_. But whichever
_ritenga_ it is, I love you; and if you love me in return, I am the
happiest girl in the _kainga_."

Scarlett gave a gasp. "Ah--really, I wasn't thinking of marrying--yet."

Amiria smiled. "You don't understand," she said. "But never mind; if you
love me, that's all right. We will