We entered a land where no one could follow us, and least of all
you. Then I began to live."
She paused. Almayer sighed deeply. With her eyes still fixed on the
ground she began speaking again.
"And I mean to live. I mean to follow him. I have been rejected with
scorn by the white people, and now I am a Malay! He took me in his arms,
he laid his life at my feet. He is brave; he will be powerful, and I
hold his bravery and his strength in my hand, and I shall make him great.
His name shall be remembered long after both our bodies are laid in the
dust. I love you no less than I did before, but I shall never leave him,
for without him I cannot live."
"If he understood what you have said," answered Almayer, scornfully, "he
must be highly flattered. You want him as a tool for some
incomprehensible ambition of yours. Enough, Nina. If you do not go down
at once to the creek, where Ali is waiting with my canoe, I shall tell
him to return to the settlement and bring the Dutch officers here. You
cannot escape from this clearing, for I have cast adrift your canoe. If
the Dutch catch this hero of yours they will hang him as sure as I stand
here. Now go."
He made a step towards his daughter and laid hold of her by the shoulder,
his other hand pointing down the path to the landing-place.
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