than that of the native.

All these things I pondered when Mlle. N---- spoke of her hope of
finding happiness in Tahiti. I was sure that, with her wealth, she
would have many suitors,--but what of a tender heart?

"It is love I want," she said. "Love and freedom. We women are used
to having our own way. I know the nuns would be horrified, but I
shall bind myself to no man."

The last colors of the sunset faded slowly on the sea, and the world
was a soft gray filled with the radiance of the rising moon. I rose
and when Mile. N---- had mounted I strolled ahead of her horse in
the moonlight. I was wearing a tuberose over my ear, and she remarked
it.

"You know what that signifies? If a man seeks a woman, he wears a
white flower over his ear, and if his love grows ardent, he wears a
red rose or hibiscus. But if he tires, he puts some green thing in
their place. _Bon dieu!_ That is the depth of ignominy for the woman
scorned. I remember one girl who was made light of that way in church.
She stayed a day hidden in the hills weeping, and then she threw
herself from a cliff."

There was in her manner a melancholy and a longing.

"Tahitians wear flowers all the day," I said. "They are gay, and
life is pleasant upon their island. There are automobiles by the
score, cinemas, singing, and dancing every evening, and many
Europeans and Americans. With money you could have everything."