But in imagination she pictured to herself the
usual life of a Malay girl--the usual succession of heavy work and fierce
love, of intrigues, gold ornaments, of domestic drudgery, and of that
great but occult influence which is one of the few rights of half-savage
womankind. But her destiny in the rough hands of the old sea-dog, acting
under unreasoning impulses of the heart, took a strange and to her a
terrible shape. She bore it all--the restraint and the teaching and the
new faith--with calm submission, concealing her hate and contempt for all
that new life. She learned the language very easily, yet understood but
little of the new faith the good sisters taught her, assimilating quickly
only the superstitious elements of the religion. She called Lingard
father, gently and caressingly, at each of his short and noisy visits,
under the clear impression that he was a great and dangerous power it was
good to propitiate. Was he not now her master? And during those long
four years she nourished a hope of finding favour in his eyes and
ultimately becoming his wife, counsellor, and guide.
Those dreams of the future were dispelled by the Rajah Laut's "fiat,"
which made Almayer's fortune, as that young man fondly hoped.
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