Island Nights' EntertainmentsStevenson, Robert Louis
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Island Nights' Entertainments
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Short stories
Thereupon he went out, and Kokua was alone.
What chance had she to sell that bottle at two centimes? None, she
perceived. And if she had any, here was her husband hurrying her away
to a country where there was nothing lower than a cent. And here—on the
morrow of her sacrifice—was her husband leaving her and blaming her.
She would not even try to profit by what time she had, but sat in the
house, and now had the bottle out and viewed it with unutterable fear,
and now, with loathing, hid it out of sight.
By-and-by, Keawe came back, and would have her take a drive.
“My husband, I am ill,” she said. “I am out of heart. Excuse me, I can
take no pleasure.”
Then was Keawe more wroth than ever. With her, because he thought she
was brooding over the case of the old man; and with himself, because he
thought she was right, and was ashamed to be so happy.
“This is your truth,” cried he, “and this your affection! Your husband
is just saved from eternal ruin, which he encountered for the love of
you—and you can take no pleasure! Kokua, you have a disloyal heart.”
He went forth again furious, and wandered in the town all day. He met
friends, and drank with them; they hired a carriage and drove into the
country, and there drank again. All the time Keawe was ill at ease,
because he was taking this pastime while his wife was sad, and because
he knew in his heart that she was more right than he; and the knowledge
made him drink the deeper.
Now there was an old brutal Haole drinking with him, one that had been
a boatswain of a whaler, a runaway, a digger in gold mines, a convict
in prisons. He had a low mind and a foul mouth; he loved to drink and
to see others drunken; and he pressed the glass upon Keawe. Soon there
was no more money in the company.
“Here, you!” says the boatswain, “you are rich, you have been always
saying. You have a bottle or some foolishness.”
“Yes,” says Keawe, “I am rich; I will go back and get some money from
my wife, who keeps it.”
“That’s a bad idea, mate,” said the boatswain. “Never you trust a
petticoat with dollars. They’re all as false as water; you keep an eye
on her.”
Now, this word struck in Keawe’s mind; for he was muddled with what he
had been drinking.
“I should not wonder but she was false, indeed,” thought he. “Why else
should she be so cast down at my release? But I will show her I am not
the man to be fooled. I will catch her in the act.”
Accordingly, when they were back in town, Keawe bade the boatswain wait
for him at the corner, by the old calaboose, and went forward up the
avenue alone to the door of his house. The night had come again; there
was a light within, but never a sound; and Keawe crept about the
corner, opened the back door softly, and looked in.
There was Kokua on the floor, the lamp at her side; before her was a
milk-white bottle, with a round belly and a long neck; and as she
viewed it, Kokua wrung her hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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