Strangest of all, this abyss did not frighten her
when she was under the influence of the witch-like being she called her
mother. She seemed to have forgotten in civilised surroundings her life
before the time when Lingard had, so to speak, kidnapped her from Brow.
Since then she had had Christian teaching, social education, and a good
glimpse of civilised life. Unfortunately her teachers did not understand
her nature, and the education ended in a scene of humiliation, in an
outburst of contempt from white people for her mixed blood. She had
tasted the whole bitterness of it and remembered distinctly that the
virtuous Mrs. Vinck's indignation was not so much directed against the
young man from the bank as against the innocent cause of that young man's
infatuation. And there was also no doubt in her mind that the principal
cause of Mrs. Vinck's indignation was the thought that such a thing
should happen in a white nest, where her snow-white doves, the two Misses
Vinck, had just returned from Europe, to find shelter under the maternal
wing, and there await the coming of irreproachable men of their destiny.
Not even the thought of the money so painfully scraped together by
Almayer, and so punctually sent for Nina's expenses, could dissuade Mrs.
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