“They are our fellow creatures; let us go out and save them!” said Miriam.
“You!” he exclaimed, disturbed. “Remember Torpeon’s mark! I will go!”
She smiled into his eyes. “I no longer fear it, or him; and you cannot prevail alone.”
Jenny and Jim were absorbed in the excitement of the battle. Neither saw Miriam turn from the window and pass out of the room, apparently alone.
CHAPTER XXX
ZARGA MAKES AMENDS
ZARGA had met her mistress, alone and unseen, immediately after the breaking up of the high court of justice. The place was on the island, at the spot where the pavilion had stood; but the pavilion was gone, and the island was rocky and barren. The change reflected too clearly to be disregarded the alteration which had been wrought in the girl’s ambitions and hopes. Lamara was standing beside a thorn-tree. The birds and the Nature people had departed. Zarga approached with lagging steps. A spring, which had formerly been the fountain in the inner court, bubbled up from a cavity in the rock and trickled away along a stony channel toward the sea.
“There is no labor more blessed than to bring back beauty and happiness from banishment, and make them bloom and be fragrant again,” Lamara said in a tender voice. “You can do work that will more than make good the mischief; and out of all that might undertake it, I shall entrust it to you.”
“You trust me still?” said the girl. “I don’t trust myself!”
“We learn self-trust by being trusted by others,” Lamara returned. “The welfare of all our people is in your hands. It lies with you, also, to give back happiness to the strangers whom you wronged, and perhaps to save from destruction the planet from which your own ancestors came hither!”
The girl looked frightened and doubtful. “I loved him!” she muttered.