as you know, no woman can tell the
truth--quite. There is a man whom I do not hate, whom I never hated,
whom I think I love because he would not love me. He sits there," and to
my utter dismay, and the intense interest of that company, she pointed
at me, Allan Quatermain!

"Well, once by my 'magic,' of which you have heard so much, I got the
better of this man against his will and judgment, and, because of that
soft heart of mine, I let him go; yes, I let the rare fish go when he
was on my hook. It is well that I should have let him go, since, had I
kept him, a fine story would have been spoiled and I should have become
nothing but a white hunter's servant, to be thrust away behind the door
when the white Inkosikazi came to eat his meat--I, Mameena, who never
loved to stand out of sight behind a door. Well, when he was at my feet
and I spared him, he made me a promise, a very small promise, which yet
I think he will keep now when we part for a little while. Macumazahn,
did you not promise to kiss me once more upon the lips whenever and
wherever I should ask you?"

"I did," I answered in a hollow voice, for in truth her eyes held me as
they had held Saduko.

"Then come now, Macumazahn, and give me that farewell kiss. The King
will permit it, and since I have now no husband, who take Death to
husband, there is none to say you nay."

I rose. It seemed to me that I could not help myself. I went to her,
this woman surrounded by implacable enemies, this woman who had played
for great stakes and lost them, and who knew so well how to lose. I
stood before her, ashamed and yet not ashamed, for something of her
greatness, evil though it might be, drove out my shame, and I knew that
my foolishness was lost in a vast tragedy.

Slowly she lifted her languid arm and threw it about my neck; slowly she
bent her red lips to mine and kissed me, once upon the mouth and once
upon the forehead. But between those two kisses she did a thing so
swiftly that my eyes could scarcely follow what she did. It seemed to
me that she brushed her left hand across her lips, and that I saw her
throat rise as though she swallowed something. Then she thrust me from
her, saying:

"Farewell, O Macumazana, you will never forget this kiss of mine; and
when we meet again we shall have much to talk of, for between now and
then your story will be long. Farewell, Zikali. I pray that all your
plannings may succeed, since those you hate are those I hate, and