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She laughed aloud at this. “Ah, you saw me? Did I dance well?”

“So beautifully that I have never forgotten that night!”

“Arero mona!” she exclaimed mockingly, for the Indians call a flatterer “sweet tongue.”

“So beautifully,” I went on as if I had not heard, “that I said to Hitihiti: ‘Who is yonder girl, lovelier than any girl in Tahiti, who might be the young goddess of the dance herself?’ ”

“Arero mona!” she mocked again, but I could see the blush mantling her smooth cheeks. She had just come out of the river and her brown hair lay in damp ringlets on her shoulders. “Come—let us see which can swim further under water, you or I!” Tehani slipped into the stream, and dived so smoothly that she scarcely rippled the still water. Clinging to the great root which had been her seat, I watched for what seemed an interminable time. The river turned in a bend about fifty yards below me, and at last, from out of sight beyond the bend, I heard Tehani’s voice. “Come,” she called gaily. “It is your turn to try!”