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"She would accept him?"

"She knows nothing of the offer. Nor does she know the young man except by sight."

"You would consent to this marriage?"

"Consent? Never!" Mauri exclaimed. "Can you believe that I would consider it?"

"Why, then, do you speak of it?"

"Because I see that the time has come when I must think of Naia's future. This I have never done; I had not the courage. The fear that I might have to give her up has been more than I could face."

"But now you are willing, if the need comes? You would let the truth be known, for her sake?"

Mauri bent her head and sat with her hands tightly clasped between her knees.

"I cannot say, Mama Taio! I cannot! I would try, perhaps, but... it might be more than... more than I could do."

"What became of the little boy, Naia's brother?"

"I should have spoken of him. You will remember, perhaps, that after the mother's death he was sent back to England, to a friend of his father who wished to rear him with his own son. I have heard of him through the British consul in Papeete. He is now a young man."