The girl's happiness was slightly alloyed by the fact that Thandar
failed to claim her as his own. She could not yet quite understand the
ethics which separated them. Thandar tried repeatedly to explain to her
that some day they were to return to his own world, and that that world
would not accept her unless she had been joined to him according to the
rites and ceremonies which it had originated.
"Will this marriage ceremony of which you tell me make you love me
more?" asked Nadara.
Thandar laughed and took her in his arms.
"I could not love you more," he replied.
"Then of what good is it?"
Thandar shook his head.
"It is difficult to explain," he said, "especially to such a lovable
little pagan as my Nadara. You must be satisfied to know--accept my
word for it--that it is because I love you that we must wait."
Now it was the girl's turn to shake her head.
"I cannot understand," she said. "My people take their mates as they
will and they are satisfied and everybody is satisfied and all is well;
but their king, who may mate as he chooses, waits until a man whom he
does not know and who lives across the great water where we may never
go, gives him permission to mate with one who loves him--with one whom
he _says_ he loves."
Thandar noticed the emphasis which Nadara put upon the word "says."
"Some day," he said, "when we have reached my world you will know that
I was right, and you will thank me. Until then, Nadara, you must trust
me, and," he added half to himself, "God knows I have earned your trust
even if you do not know it."
And so Nadara made believe that she was satisfied but in her heart of
hearts she still feared that Thandar did not really love her, nor did
the half-veiled comments of the women add at all to her peace of mind.
During all the time that Thandar was with her he had been teaching her
his language for he had set his heart upon taking her home, and he
wished her to be as well prepared for her introduction to Boston and
civilization as he could make her.
Thandar's plan was to find a suitable location within sight of the sea
that he might always be upon the lookout for a ship. At last he found
such a place--a level meadow land upon a low plateau overlooking the
ocean.
He had come upon it while he wandered alone several miles from the
temporary cliff dwellings the tribe was occupying. The soil, when he
dug into it, he found to be rich and black. There was timber upon one
side and upon the other overhanging cliffs of soft limestone.
It was Thandar's plan to build a village partly of logs against the
face of the cliff, burrowing inward behind the dwellings for such
additional apartments as each family might require.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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