520 MYSTIC ISLES 



hear your voice, "Teriitera — Rui — here is the hour for putter 

 and tiro (cheese and syrup). I did not sleep that night, think- 

 ing continually of you, my very dear friend, until the morning; 

 being then still awake, I went to see Tapina Tutu on her bed, 

 and alas, she was not there. Afterwards I looked into your 

 rooms ; they did not please me as they used to do. I did not 

 hear your voice saying, "Hail, Rui"; I thought then that you 

 h-ad gone, and that you had left me. Rising up, I went to the 

 beach to see your ship, and I could not see it. I wept, then, 

 until the night, telling myself continually, "Teriitera returns 

 into his own country and leaves his dear Rui in grief, so that 

 I suffer for him, and weep for him." I will not forget you in 

 my memory. Here is the thought : I desire to meet you again. 

 It is my dear Teriitera makes the only riches I desire in this 

 world. It is your eyes that I desire to see again. It must be 

 that your body and my body shall eat together at one table: 

 there is what would make, my heart content. But now we are 

 separated. May God be with you all. May His word and 

 His mercy go with you, so that you may be well and we also, 

 according to the words of Paul. 



The chief listened throughout the message with his 

 eyes empty of us, conjuring a vision of the Rui who so 

 far back had won his heart; and when Choti had con- 

 cluded, Ori-a-Ori hfted his glass, and said, "Rui e 

 Maru!" coupling me in his affection with the dim figure 

 of his sweet guest of the late eighties. 



The last toast was to my return. 



"You have eaten the fei in Tahiti nei, and you will 

 come back," they chanted. 



Raiere drove me in his cart to Taravao, where I had 

 arranged for an automobile to meet me. At Mataiea 

 I was clasped to the bosom of Haamoura, and spent a 

 few minutes with the Chevalier Tetuanui. They could 

 not understand us cold-blooded whites, who go long dis- 



