It attacks the nerves. You could cut her fingers off with a dull
knife, or rub them off on a nutmeg-grater, and she would not
experience the slightest sensation."

"Yes, but that fine-looking woman, there," I persisted; "surely,
surely, there can't be anything the matter with her. She is too
glorious and gorgeous altogether."

"A sad case," Mr. McVeigh answered over his shoulder, already
turning away to walk down the wharf with Kersdale.

She was a beautiful woman, and she was pure Polynesian. From my
meagre knowledge of the race and its types I could not but conclude
that she had descended from old chief stock. She could not have
been more than twenty-three or four. Her lines and proportions were
magnificent, and she was just beginning to show the amplitude of the
women of her race.

"It was a blow to all of us," Dr. Georges volunteered. "She gave
herself up voluntarily, too. No one suspected. But somehow she had
contracted the disease. It broke us all up, I assure you. We've
kept it out of the papers, though. Nobody but us and her family
knows what has become of her. In fact, if you were to ask any man
in Honolulu, he'd tell you it was his impression that she was
somewhere in Europe. It was at her request that we've been so quiet
about it. Poor girl, she has a lot of pride."

"But who is she?" I asked. "Certainly, from the way you talk about
her, she must be somebody."