The Secret Power

Manella gave an impatient gesture.

"I do not understand all your fine words"--she said--"But I will answer you. I told her about you--how you had come to live in the hut for the dying on the hill rather than at the Plaza--and how I took to you all the food you asked for, and she seemed amused--"

"Amused?" he echoed.

"Yes--amused. She laughed,--she looks very pretty when she laughs. And--and she seemed to fancy--"

He lifted himself upright in a sitting posture.

"Seemed to fancy? ... what?--"

"That I was not bad to look at--" and Manella, gathering sudden boldness, lifted her dark eyes to his face--"She said I could tell you that she thinks me quite beautiful! Yes!--quite beautiful!"

He smiled--a smile that was more like a sneer.

"So you are! I've told you so, often. 'There needs no ghost come from the grave' to emphasise the fact. But she--the purring cat!--she told you to repeat her opinion to me, because--can you guess why?"

"No!"

"Simpleton! Because she wishes you to convey to me the message that she considers me your lover and that she admires my taste! Now she'll go back to New York full of the story! Subtle little devil! But I am not your lover, and never shall be,--not even for half an hour!"

Manella sprang up from the turf where she had been sitting.

"I know that!" she said, and her splendid eyes flashed proud defiance--"I know I have been a fool to let myself care for you! I do not know why I did--it was an illness! But I am well now!"

"You are well now? Good! O let us be joyful! Keep well, Manella!--and be 'quite beautiful'--as you are! To be quite beautiful is a fine thing--not so fine as it used to be in the Greek period--still, it has its advantages! I wonder what you will do with your beauty?"

As he spoke, he rose, stretching and shaking him self like a forest animal.

"What will you do with it?" he repeated--"You must give it to somebody! You must transmit it to your offspring! That's the old law of nature--it's getting a bit monotonous, still it's the law! Now she--the wonderful white woman--she's all for upsetting the law! Fortunately she's not beautiful--"

"She IS!" exclaimed Manella--"I think her so!" He looked down upon her from his superior height with a tolerant amusement.