When the cruisers were gone, Monsieur Lutz and all the Germans were imprisoned on Motu-Uta, the beautiful little islet a thousand feet from Lovaina’s Annexe Hotel. Madame Lutz was reproached by the church, the government, and by every one not in prison, for marrying the “animal” Lutz, and immediately they began to give her a divorce on that very ground—that the husband was a German, and therefore not a human being, but an animal. It did not take long, and again she was Mademoiselle Narbonne.
Now she was free, rich, and in civilization. She danced and sang and was dressed in your American clothes, for no ships came from France. But, as in Atuona, rumors began that she was leprous. That did not matter much to the Tahitians who, if they like one, care nothing for what one has, but the whites ceased to be in her company. They did not say aloud what they thought, but only that she had loved a German.
Maná went every day of good weather in a little canoe about the islet of Motu-Uta, at a certain distance prescribed by the guards, and made a gesture to Monsieur Lutz, who sat or stood within an enclosure and looked out to sea. Poor Lutz! He died of an aneurism, or, if you will, of a broken Prussian heart.
Mademoiselle Narbonne one day went toward Papenoo. At Faaripoo she saw the inclosure of the leprosarium, where the three or four score lepers are confined. She returned to the Marquesas Islands.
Pauvre fille! Personne n’a voulu se marier avec elle et elle vit avec un vieux Canaque de Taaoa. Elle est retournée à la brousse—Poor girl! Nobody wants to marry her and she lives with an old Kanaka of Taaoa. She has returned to the jungle.
I will tell you, my friend, that no matter what Lemoal has said, or her own fears, Mademoiselle Narbonne is not a leper. But the sorcery of the taua has ended her. These Marquesans, even if half white, are yet heathen.
Daughter of the Pigeon is dead of tuberculosis. Ghost Girl died of influenza in Tahiti, where she had gone to continue her joyous life. Peyral and his white daughters have fled to France. Exploding Eggs has taken the daughter of Titihuti; and her husband, from whom he seized her, is content to live with them. Governor L’Hermier des Plantes is governor of the Congo. Song of the Nightingale is in prison for making cocoanut rum. Seventh Man Who Is So Angry has lost his wife of tuberculosis. Vanquished Often died of leprosy in childbirth. Le Moine, the artist, went mad and is dead. Grelet, the Swiss, is dead. Père David, Père Simeon, Père Victorin, are well, as all the nuns. Jimmy Kekela is well; his sister is shut up in a leper hospital. McHenry has been expelled from Tahiti for selling alcoholic liquors to the natives of the Paumotus. Lemoal is dead. Hemeury François and Scallamera are dead. Vai Etienne, son of Titihuti, is dead. Commissaire Bauda went to the wars.
I have named my second child after you, Frederick. You remember her mother, At Peace, the sister of Malicious Gossip. We dwell in comfort and happiness. Return to live with us.
Votre dévoué
Le Brunnec.