“Whom?” she gasped.
“Myself,” said Yermah, holding her tightly. “Art thou jealous?”
“Not now,” she replied, with a look that enchanted her admirer.
“Wilt thou hear other confessions? I can accuse myself of much more.”
“And compel me to love thee the more for them all. Thou shalt leave me sufficient mind for besetting affairs,” answered Kerœcia.
“Wouldst thou have me for thy slave?”
“No. But I would be thine.”
“Lend thy confidence fully, that I may worship where thou art pleased, and abhor that which offends thee.”
“That which I value most of all my possessions is this distaff given me by my mother,” said Kerœcia, bringing forward a slender strip of bamboo, not much larger than a darning-needle, lightly weighted with pellets of clay.
It had a jeweled handle and a wheel of hardwood, polished and set with mother-of-pearl. A tiny shell served for a socket, should the weight of the spindle prove too heavy for the gossamer threads used.