Evening star., 1909-02-12
: THE LADY OF THE HEAVENS ;
Bv II. RIDER HAGGARD.
Darkest II Rider 3


hates the Dutch; he is of the people OF
George"
The people Of George? Why he must
mean subject OF King George an
Englishman."
Yes yes. lady; an Englis,lman. like
you," and he gr'inned at her. Have
YOU any message for the lnkoos Hisi-
mel?"
Yes. Say TO the Inkoos tshmael or
Lion " no -dwels in-the- wilderness. hates
the Dutch and wears zebra-skin trousers,
that my father and my mother THANK
him very much for his present and hope
thai his health is good. Go. That is
all.
The man grinned again. suspecting
joke. for the Zulus have a sense OF
humor then repeated the message word
for word. trying to pronounce 1shmaei
as Rachel did. saluted. mounted his horse
and galloped eff after his master.
Perhaps you should have kept that
kaffir until your father came" suggest
ed Mrs. Dove. doubtfully.
What the good" said RacheI.
He would only have asked Mr. Ishmael
to call in order that he might find out
his religious opinions. and don't want
tc ..Es,. Ses any ny. more &C., OF the man
Because I don't like him, mother.
think he is worse than any Of the rest
down there-too bad to stop among them
probably and" she added with con-
viction. II think we shall have more Of
his company than we want before all
is done. Oh. IL is no good to say that
! | am preiudiced--I do. and what Is more.
he came into our Garden of Eden and
shot the buck hope he will meet that
| rhinoceros on the way home. There
Although she disapproved. or tried 10
think that she did, OF such strong opin
ions SO strongly expressed. Mrs. Dove
onered no further opposition TO them.
and mental vigor overshadowed her. as
they did her husband also Indeed, it
seemed curious that this girl. so power
ful in body and In mind. should have
sprung from such a pair-a wrong head
ed, narrow-viewed saint whose right place
in the world would have been a cell in
the monastery Of one OF the stricter
orders. and a gentle uncomplainins high
bred woman. with mind distinguished
by its af1ectionate and mystical nature,
a mind unusual and refined that il
seemed to be- and In truth was. open to
influences whereof mercifully enough. the
majority of us never feel the subtle,
secret power.
OF her father there was absolutely no
trace in Rachel. except certain physical
resemblance-so far as he was concerned
she must have thrown back to some
earlier rcgenitor. Even their intellects
and moral outlook were quite different.
She had. II is true, something of his
scholarly power: thus. notwithstanding
her wild upbrinEing. as has been said,
she could read the Greek Testament al
which she liked because the DID, blood
thirsty heroes reminded her of the Zulus.
He had taught her this and other knowl
edge, and she was an apt pupil. But
there the resemblance stopped. Whereas
his intelligence was narrow and enslaved
by the priestly tradition. hers was wide
and human. She searched and size
criticised: she believed in God as he
in the evil as in the good In her own
thought she often compared these forces
to the day and the night. and believed
| both CT them to be necessary to the
human world. For her. savagery had
virtues as we'll rs civilization, although
1t Is true OF the latter she knew but
little
From her mother Rachel had inherited
more: for instance her grace of speech
and bearing and her intuition or fore
sight. Only in her case this curious gift
did not dominate her her ether forces
held it in check. She felt and she knew.
but feeling and knowledge did not fright
en- or make her weak any more than tie
strength of her frame or OF her spirit
made her unwomanly. She accepted these
things as part of her mental equipment.
that was all, being fully aware that t"
her a door was opened which is sl!u;
firmly enough In the faces of most folk
but not on that account in the least
afraid OF looking through 1t as her
mother was.
Thus when she saw the man called
!
was destined to bring great evil upon
her and hers. as when as child she me-
the boy. Richard Darrien. she had known
other things. But she did not. therefore
fear the man and his attendant evil
She only shrank from the first and
looked through the second. onward and
outward to the ultimate good which she
was convinced lay at the end of every
thing. and meanwhile. being young and
merry, she found his zebra-skin trousers
very ridiculous.
Just as Rachel and her mother tn-
ished their conversation about Mr.. Ish-
mael. Mr.. Dove arrived from a little
kloof where he had been enga ged with
the kaff1rs in cutting bushes TO make a
thorn fence round their camp as a pro
lection against lions and hyenas. He
looked older than when we last met him.
and save for a fringe of white hair
which increased his monkish appearance,
was quite bald. His face, too, was even
thinner and more eager, and his gray
eyes were more far-away than formerly;
also he had grown a long white beard
(To be continued tomorrowD