ed you; there is no doubt
of it in my heart. Yes, yes, Swallow, I see you most happy in the love
of husband and of children, thinking of all these things as a far-off
evil dream, as of a dream that never will return. What more do I desire?
What more have I to ask?

"I say that I have repaid to you part of the debt I owe, but all of it
I can never repay, for, Swallow, you have given me love which elsewhere
has been denied to me. Others have parents and brothers and sisters and
husbands to love them; I have none of these. I have only you who are to
me father and mother and sister and lover.

"How then can I repay you who have taught this cold heart of mine to
love, and have deigned to love me in return? Oh! and the love will not
die; no, no, it will live on when all else is dead, for although I am
but a Kaffir doctoress, at times light shines upon my heart, and in that
light I see many new things. Yes, yes, I see that this life of ours is
but a road, a weary road across the winter veldt, and this death but the
black gate of a garden of flowers----"

"Oh! why do you speak thus?" broke in Suzanne. "Is this then our last
farewell, and does your wisdom tell you that we part to meet no more?"

"I know not, Swallow," answered Sihamba hastily, "but if it should be
so I care nothing, for I am sure that through all your days you will not
forget me, and that when your days are done I shall meet you at the
foot of the death-bed. Nay, you must not weep. Now go swiftly, for it is
time, and even in your husband's love be mindful always that a woman
can love also; yes, though she be but a dwarfed Kaffir doctoress.
Swallow--Sister Swallow, fare you well," and, throwing herself upon
her breast, Sihamba kissed her again and again. Then, with a strange
strength, she thrust her from the hut, calling to Zinti to take charge
of her and do as she had bidden him, adding that if he failed in this
task she would blast his body and haunt his spirit.

Thus parted Sihamba, the Kaffir witch-doctoress, and my daughter
Suzanne, whom she kept safe for nearly three years, and saved at last at
the cost of her own life. Yes, thus they parted, and for always in the
flesh, since it was not fated that they should meet again in this world,
and whether it has been permitted to Sihamba--being a Kaffir, and no
Christian--to enter a better one is more than I can say. In her case,
however, I hope that she has found some hole to creep through, for
although s