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“You will not poison him, woman; and, though he deserves to die, you are worse than he. Now begone, and remember my words!”

Bending down, she touched the corpse’s forehead with her lips, then, rising, said:

“I kiss your feet, Lord of the Heart,” and went away without looking behind her, nor was she seen again in that village.

Then, with a sigh, I also was turning to go, for it saddened me to think that when drink got hold of them, a woman should have the power to change these men, who were my brethren, into savage beasts thirsting for each other’s blood.

“Ah!” I mused, “had it not been for that other woman who destroyed me and my hope, by now I had begun to teach them better.”

At this moment, looking up, I chanced to see a man such as I had never before beheld, standing by my side and gazing at me. Stories are told of how men and women, looking on each other for the first time, in certain cases are filled with a strange passion of love, of which, come what may, they can not again be rid.