passed before her, walking erect and indifferent, in the pride of youth,
in the flash of rich dress, with a tinkle of gold ornaments, while
everybody stood aside watching anxiously for a movement of his lips,
ready to do his bidding. Then all her life seemed to rush into her eyes,
and from under her veil she gazed at him, charmed, yet fearful to attract
attention. One day he noticed her and asked, "Who is that girl?" "A
slave, Tuan! A girl that sells cakes," a dozen voices replied together.
She rose in terror to run on shore, when he called her back; and as she
stood trembling with head hung down before him, he spoke kind words,
lifting her chin with his hand and looking into her eyes with a smile.
"Do not be afraid," he said. He never spoke to her any more. Somebody
called out from the river bank; he turned away and forgot her existence.
Taminah saw Almayer standing on the shore with Nina on his arm. She
heard Nina's voice calling out gaily, and saw Dain's face brighten with
joy as he leaped on shore. She hated the sound of that voice ever since.

After that day she left off visiting Almayer's compound, and passed the
noon hours under the shade of the brig awning. She watched for his
coming with heart beating quicker and quicker, as he approached, into a
wild tumult of newly-aroused feelings of joy and hope and fear that died
away with Dain's retreating figure, leaving her tired out, as if after a
struggle, sitting still for a long time in dreamy languor. Then she
paddled home slowly in the afternoon, often letting her canoe float with
the lazy stream in the quiet backwater of the river. The paddle hung
idle in the water as she sat in the stern, one hand supporting her chin,
her eyes wide open, listening intently to the whispering of her heart
that seemed to swell at last into a song of extreme sweetness. Listening
to that song she husked the rice at home; it dulled her ears to the
shrill bickerings of Bulangi's wives, to the sound of angry reproaches
addressed to herself. And when the sun was near its setting she walked