One morning, about a month after the death of Captain Thornton, as Etta and Mabel were preparing for their morning bath in the ocean, they grew confidential, as girls are apt to do when arranging their toilets together.
“Mabel,” said Etta, “I envy you the freedom you enjoy in seeing Ahleka so often with none to interfere. How I wish I were in your place for I must meet Uala clandestinely, so that papa shall not know of our love. I hate to deceive papa, I am sure, but I don’t know what to do. Do you think I do right to meet him as I do?”
“Yes indeed, I think you are right to meet him if you love him. It would be far better if every woman would cling to the one man she loves; but you are not right in meeting him secretly. You should not be ashamed to acknowledge your love before all. When one is ashamed of their love it is not the pure, strong unchangeable passion that alone should be called by that name.” She spoke warmly, for she did not like this concealment on the part of her friend.
“But Mabel, you do not understand me at all. I am not ashamed of my love for Uala, but papa has said I should never marry any one on this island with his consent. Now what am I to do?”
“What are you to do? Be a true woman and let your holy love for the man who has won your heart, speak hereafter. Let it be his approval or disapproval you abide by. When you were a child you owed your obedience to your father, but now you are a woman with a woman’s love in your heart and you should obey that love, even if it is in opposition to your father’s will.”
“Would you have me marry Uala without my father’s consent?”
“Yes, by all means. You do not seem to realize that you are teaching deception to Uala, and, you know, deceit among this people is a thing unknown. Can you be the first to teach them, by example, that there are such things as deceit, untruth and dishonesty?”
“No, Mabel. No, you know that I don’t,” exclaimed Etta. “Do have some mercy on me. You forget how I am placed.”
“No, I do not forget,” answered Mabel, “but you do not belong to your father. You are not a slave. Your heart, your mind, your will, are yours and yours alone. When a father attempts to govern the love in his daughter’s heart he undertakes that which he has no right to; for nature has placed the feeling of love strong in the breast of every woman, and whoever tries to thwart that love, should realize that they are responsible for whatever of deceit, wrong doing and shame that may follow. Half of the blighted, unhappy women of the world are made so, either by the interference of others, in their love affairs, or by their own weakness in not daring to marry a man if his so-called social position is not equal to their own, or whose purse is not long enough to satisfy their soaring ambition. If women married those they loved and none else, as is done here, we should have no scandals in high life to shock us, as is now constantly the case. Oh, stop this deceit, Etta, it is unworthy of you! Be a true woman. There is no virtue more to be admired in woman than sincerity, and if you love Uala, as you say——”
“Oh, Mabel! can you doubt my love?” broke in Etta. “I love him with my whole heart, but I did not realize how false my conduct was, until now that you have shown me how wrong I have been. I will tell papa everything at once, and if he disapproves, as I know only too well that he will, I shall do as you say, hold fast to my resolution, as I know I shall always love Uala, and should be wretchedly unhappy without him.”
“I am glad, Etta dear, that you have come to so womanly a decision.”
“Do you suppose Mabel, that your father would approve of your marriage with Ahleka if he know of it?”
“Yes,” answered Mabel, “I am quite sure he would. It was from his dear lips that I learned to think on the subject of marriage as I do.”
After they had had their bath, Etta went directly to her father to tell him of her love for Uala. It was a hard task, but she now saw her duty and was determined to do it. After throwing her arms about his neck, and kissing him, she dropped in a graceful little heap upon the mat at his feet, and began: “Papa, do you love me very much?”
“What a question, why child, you are all in the world I have left to love. Of course I love you.”
“But, papa, do you love me lots and lots, as I used to say when I was a little thing?”
“I love you more and more every day of your life, my dear child.”
“Then you want me to be very happy, don’t you papa dear?” An odd expression passed over the face of Captain Gray, as he replied:
“Want you to be happy? of course I do, you little kitten. If I were in America now, after all this coaxing, I should expect a request to buy you a seal skin jacket, but as this climate won’t do for seal skins, and they are not to be had any way, I don’t know what I am expected to give this little tease to make her so wonderfully happy.” His tone and words were light and playful, but his face was stern, for he more than half guessed what she meant to ask.
“Oh, papa,” she cried, “I know I am going to make you angry but I cannot help it. I love Uala. Will you give your consent to our union?”
“Never! How can you ask for my consent to marry a black beggar?”
“Oh, papa! he is so manly and I love him with my whole heart.”
“Then the sooner you stop loving him the better, is all I’ve got to say, for you shan’t marry that black-skinned hound.”
“Papa,” said Etta, rising to her feet, her whole manner changed in a moment, from girlish playfulness to womanly dignity. She had been stung by her father’s scornful words. “Papa, you have always been a kind and affectionate father to me and my love and respect for you could not be greater; but from to-day my love and respect is also given to another. His, I am in heart and his I shall remain forever.”
“How dare you defy me!” he cried, “you shall never marry him, even if I have to——” What he would have said farther will never be known, for the sentence was never finished.