the brow of the beach, and the men, in
strange, ominous quiet, spear and club in hand, had ranged, without a
sound, in battle array before her escort.

There was silence awhile, and then Taneo, the foster brother of Narue,
clothed in his armour of cinnet fibre, and grasping a short stabbing
spear in his hand, stepped out of the ranks.

'Get thee back again to Tahiti, O men of Pare,' he said quietly,
striking his spear into the sand. 'This marriage is not to our minds.'

Then Laea, as she looked at the amazed and angered faces of her people
as they heard Taneo's insulting words, dashed aside her attendants, and
leaping from the canoe into the shallow water, walked to the shore, and
stood face to face with him.

'Who art thou, fellow, to stand before the daughter of Tetoro the King,
with a spear in thy rude hand, and thy mouth filled with saucy words?'

'I am Taneo, the foster brother of the man thou seekest to marry. And
because that a warning hath come to us against this marriage do I stand
here, spear in hand.'

Laea laughed scornfully.

'_I_ seek thy brother in marriage? Thou fool! Would I, the daughter of
my father, _seek_ any man for husband? Hath not this Narue pestered me so
with his presents and his love-offerings that, for very weariness, and
to please my father, I turned my face from the Englishman who buildeth
ships for him, and said "Aye" to this Narue--who is but a little
man{*}--when he besought me to be wife to him. Ah! the Englishman, who
is both a clever and strong man, is more to my liking.'

* Meaning in rank.

'Get thee back, then, to thy Englishman, and leave to me my lover,'
cried a woman's voice, and Milli the Slave, thrusting aside the armed
men who sought to stay her, sprang out upon the sand, and clenching her
hands tightly, gazed fiercely at the king's daughter.

'_Thy_ lover!' and Laea looked contemptuously at the small, slender
figure of the slave girl, and then her cheek darkened with rage as she
turned to her followers. 'See how this dog of a Narue hath insulted me!
Have I come all this way to be fooled for the sake of such a miserable
creature as this?' and she pointed scornfully to Milli and then spat on
the ground. 'Where is this fellow? Let him come near to me so that I may
tell him to his face that I have ever despised him as one beneath me.
Where is he, I ask thee, girl?' And she seized the slave girl by her
wrist.

The savage fury of her voice, her blazing eyes, and