"Here, children! You go now and help Brahimu and Kagavezi. Don’t get into mischief. Keep out of the sun, don’t pick up scorpions, and don’t go outside the boma.... I’m an outspoken woman, you know, Lucy. I can’t help saying I think you ought to have stuck by your husband." "But I was so _ill_, Mrs. Stott, and John _insisted_ on my going. Didn’t he ... Captain Brentham?" "He did really, Mrs. Stott. I had instructions to advise all the missionaries to leave their stations and return to the coast—indeed, I come here to you with that message, but I suppose you won’t obey it?" "Indeed I won’t, Captain Brentham, though I thank you for your efforts to find us and help us. I do indeed. But wherever my husband is, there will I be too, unless he absolutely ordered me to go away.... And I saw it was the will of God that I should go." "Well: that was what John did to me—absolutely _ordered_ me to go," said Lucy, beginning to cry. "He ordered Ann to go with me. It isn’t my fault—our fault—that Ann has gone back, in spite of John’s _positive commands_. Ann never obeys any one. Oh dear, oh dear! _what_ should I do ... I feel if I go back to that place I shall simply die ... and yet I shall lose your good opinion ... if I go to the coast with Captain Brentham...." "Oh, I don’t say that. I’m not one for passing judgments on my fellow creatures. It’s between them and God. But look here, Captain Brentham: I don’t want to keep you idle. I’ll be bound there’s a hundred things you want to see to in your camp. I’ll keep Lucy with me. She and I are old friends, as you know. If you’d send over her loads and her native woman—let’s see, what was her name? I remember how she nursed you when your poor baby came—and went—Halima? Yes. Well, send over everything that belongs to Lucy and her tent shall be pitched inside our boma whilst she stays here. She and I will talk things over a bit and then, maybe, we’ll call you into consultation. I’m sure you want to do what’s best for us all. What a _strange_ place to meet in! The last time we spoke together was in your grand Arab house at Unguja and I was more than a bit afraid of you."