Somebody
called out from the river bank; he turned away and forgot her existence.
Taminah saw Almayer standing on the shore with Nina on his arm. She
heard Nina's voice calling out gaily, and saw Dain's face brighten with
joy as he leaped on shore. She hated the sound of that voice ever since.
After that day she left off visiting Almayer's compound, and passed the
noon hours under the shade of the brig awning. She watched for his
coming with heart beating quicker and quicker, as he approached, into a
wild tumult of newly-aroused feelings of joy and hope and fear that died
away with Dain's retreating figure, leaving her tired out, as if after a
struggle, sitting still for a long time in dreamy languor. Then she
paddled home slowly in the afternoon, often letting her canoe float with
the lazy stream in the quiet backwater of the river. The paddle hung
idle in the water as she sat in the stern, one hand supporting her chin,
her eyes wide open, listening intently to the whispering of her heart
that seemed to swell at last into a song of extreme sweetness. Listening
to that song she husked the rice at home; it dulled her ears to the
shrill bickerings of Bulangi's wives, to the sound of angry reproaches
addressed to herself.
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