She looked at me sidelong with a smile. "You see, you get copra,"
she said, the same as you might offer candies to a child.

"Uma," said I, "hear reason. I didn't know, and that's a fact; and
Case seems to have played it pretty mean upon the pair of us. But
I do know now, and I don't mind; I love you too much. You no go
'way, you no leave me, I too much sorry."

"You no love, me," she cried, "you talk me bad words!" And she
threw herself in a corner of the floor, and began to cry.

Well, I'm no scholar, but I wasn't born yesterday, and I thought
the worst of that trouble was over. However, there she lay - her
back turned, her face to the wall - and shook with sobbing like a
little child, so that her feet jumped with it. It's strange how it
hits a man when he's in love; for there's no use mincing things -
Kanaka and all, I was in love with her, or just as good. I tried
to take her hand, but she would none of that. "Uma," I said,
"there's no sense in carrying on like this. I want you stop here,
I want my little wifie, I tell you true."

"No tell me true," she sobbed.

"All right," says I, "I'll wait till you're through with this."
And I sat right down beside her on the floor, and set to smooth her
hair with my hand. At first she wriggled away when I touched her;
then she seemed to notice me no more; then her sobs grew gradually
less, and presently stopped; and the next thing I knew, she raised
her face to mime.