"I will prepare the bitter draught for him--that draught which will bring a man back to life, though the jaws of death were closing over him," said the tohunga. "When the sun is high, a change will come upon him." "Are you sure? Are you indeed aware that he will begin to gain strength?" she asked eagerly. "He has been so terribly weak, and was beginning to lose heart." "Did the daughter of the Toa-rangatira ever know my saying to prove false?" asked the priest, haughtily. "Oh, no--no!" she rejoined hastily. "But tell me more. Shall we be able to carry him to the homes of his people? And shall we be happy afterwards?" "I see," said the sage--"I see the pakeha standing among his people; he is well; he is happy; joy is in his face--in his voice. But there is blood--blood through it. I can see no more. There is a mist--a darkness. The future is hidden from me." "A bad omen," said the girl, sadly. "You saw blood, O Tiro-hanga! But I care not for myself, so that _he_ be safe and unharmed." "Such is the woman who loves," mused the tohunga, as he stalked moodily towards the shore of the lake--"of whatever colour or race, in the old days as well as in this present time, when chiefs are falling like withered leaves, and the pakeha drives the tribes to their death, as the wildfowl on the warm lakes. And what cares she if the whole island is delivered to the stranger, and we become his slaves? All her thought is for the recovery of this pakeha, whom, till ten moons since, she never set eyes upon." With this moral reflection concerning the "eternal feminine," the substance of which has been stated by less recent philosophers, the magician of the period betook himself to the raupo whare set apart for him, where he remained long in deepest meditation, none of the humbler members of the tribe daring to disturb him. He stayed till the close of the following day, to watch the effect of his potion, and finding that Massinger professed himself unaccountably improved in mind and body, directed that in three days the patient should commence his journey to the Oropi missionary settlement, and departed mysteriously as he had arrived. * * * * *