their two savage natures, and he did not want Mrs. Almayer's encouraging
smiles to take every opportunity of approaching the girl; and every time
he spoke to her, every time he looked into her eyes, Nina, although
averting her face, felt as if this bold-looking being who spoke burning
words into her willing ear was the embodiment of her fate, the creature
of her dreams--reckless, ferocious, ready with flashing kriss for his
enemies, and with passionate embrace for his beloved--the ideal Malay
chief of her mother's tradition.

She recognised with a thrill of delicious fear the mysterious
consciousness of her identity with that being. Listening to his words,
it seemed to her she was born only then to a knowledge of a new
existence, that her life was complete only when near him, and she
abandoned herself to a feeling of dreamy happiness, while with
half-veiled face and in silence--as became a Malay girl--she listened to
Dain's words giving up to her the whole treasure of love and passion his
nature was capable of with all the unrestrained enthusiasm of a man
totally untrammelled by any influence of civilised self-discipline.

And they used to pass many a delicious and fast fleeting hour under the
mango trees behind the friendly curtain of bushes till Mrs. Almayer's
shrill voice gave the signal of unwilling separation. Mrs. Almayer had
undertaken the easy task of watching her husband lest he should interrupt
the smooth course of her daughter's love affair, in which she took a
great and benignant interest. She was happy and proud to see Dain's
infatuation, believing him to be a great and powerful chief, and she
found also a gratification of her mercenary instincts in Dain's
open-handed generosity.

On the eve of the day when Babalatchi's suspicions were confirmed by