I wander in blackness; I will speak
with you again. Say now, what else is wrong with me?"
Now Alan thought that he saw opportunity for a word in season and made a
great mistake.
"I think that you treat your husband, that man whom you call Mungana,
very badly. Why should you drive him to his death?"
At these words the Asika leapt up in a rage, and seeking something to
vent her temper on, violently boxed Jeekie's ears and kicked him with
her sandalled foot.
"The Mungana!" she exclaimed, "that beast! What have I to do with him?
I hate him, as I hated the others. The priests thrust him on me. He has
had his day, let him go. In your country do they make women live with
men whom they loathe? I love _you_, Bonsa himself knows why? Perhaps
because you have a white skin and white thoughts. But I hate that man.
What is the use of being Asika if I cannot take what I love and reject
what I hate? Go away, Vernoon, go away, you have angered me, and if it
were not for what you have said about that new law of mercy, I think
that I would cut your throat," and again she boxed Jeekie's ears and
kicked him in the shins.
Alan rose and bowed himself towards the door while she stood with her
back towards him, sobbing.
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