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“It is only my servant who came ashore with me. I bade her wait at the mouth of the stream while I bathed.”

“You came from Tetiaroa?” I asked, with her head on my shoulder and my arm about her waist.

“No, I have been to Raiatea with my uncle. We have been two days and two nights at sea.”

“Who is your uncle?”

The girl turned to me in real astonishment. “You do not know?” she said incredulously.

“No.”

“Yet you speak our tongue like one of us! Strange men, you English—I have never talked with one of you before. My uncle is Vehiatua, of course, high chief of Taiarapu.”

“I have often heard of him.”

“Are you a chief in your own land?”

“A very small one, perhaps.”

“I knew it! Knew it the moment I laid eyes on you! Hitihiti would not take as his taio a common man.”

Again we fell silent, both conscious that our words reflected only the surface of our minds. “Tehani!” I said.

“Yes.”

She raised her head and I kissed her in the English fashion, full on the lips. We walked back to the cove hand in hand, while the servant followed us, her eyes round with wonder.