"
"No, _Inkoos_, why should I tell Nahoon your secrets? I have said 'nay'
to you, not 'yea,' therefore he has no right to know," and she stooped
to lift the gourd of water.
Hadden considered the situation rapidly, for his repulse only made
him the more determined to succeed. Of a sudden under the emergency
he conceived a scheme, or rather its rough outline. It was not a
nice scheme, and some men might have shrunk from it, but as he had
no intention of suffering himself to be defeated by a Zulu girl, he
decided--with regret, it is true--that having failed to attain his ends
by means which he considered fair, he must resort to others of more
doubtful character.
"Nanea," he said, "you are a good and honest woman, and I respect you.
As I have told you, I love you also, but if you refuse to listen to me
there is nothing more to be said, and after all, perhaps it would be
better that you should marry one of your own people. But, Nanea, you
will never marry him, for the king will take you; and, if he does not
give you to some other man, either you will become one of his 'sisters,'
or to be free of him, as you say, you will die.
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