Now go, and
forget not to return."
He gave her a push with the end of his long staff as she was going away
and made her stumble.
"This slave is very slow," he remarked to his nephew, looking after the
girl with great disfavour.
Taminah walked on, her tray on the head, her eyes fixed on the ground.
From the open doors of the houses were heard, as she passed, friendly
calls inviting her within for business purposes, but she never heeded
them, neglecting her sales in the preoccupation of intense thinking.
Since the very early morning she had heard much, she had also seen much
that filled her heart with a joy mingled with great suffering and fear.
Before the dawn, before she left Bulangi's house to paddle up to Sambir
she had heard voices outside the house when all in it but herself were
asleep. And now, with her knowledge of the words spoken in the darkness,
she held in her hand a life and carried in her breast a great sorrow. Yet
from her springy step, erect figure, and face veiled over by the everyday
look of apathetic indifference, nobody could have guessed of the double
load she carried under the visible burden of the tray piled up high with
cakes manufactured by the thrifty hands of Bulangi's wives.
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