“No,” came the answer. It was not pleasant to Mabel to be thus questioned, yet she could not resent it, as it was not intended to displease her. “I do not love Allen, and if I did I should not choose him, for in my country the young girls must not choose their husbands, but wait to be asked in marriage by the young men.”
“Do you mean you do not love him?” exclaimed Maula.
“No, indeed, I do not. Why do you ask?”
“Ah, now is Maula happy. Maula loves Allen. Oh, how she loves him. But she would have waited until the moon maidens had chosen. Then, if you had chosen him, Maula would have taken her canoe far out beyond the reef and thrown herself to the sharks.” As the girl spoke, a passionate light shone in her eyes, forcing Mabel to believe her. “But now he is Maula’s. How I love him. I shall be so kind, so gentle, to him that he shall love me in return. Maula shall be a soft, cooing dove in his hands, a wild beast of the hills to his enemies.”
“But what if he refuse you?”
“He will not when I look with love into his eyes, open my arms and fold him to my breast, and press my burning lips to his. I shall dance before him. He shall see my strength, my ease of movement, my grace; he will love me!”
She beat her heaving breast with her clenched hands, and Mabel stood aghast at the intensity of the girl’s love. She, too, could but think that Allen would not be able to resist this beautiful tigress.
The girl continued, “and if he scorns my love, and says no, then he shall die. It is our country’s custom. No man is fit to live who will refuse a maiden’s love. But he shall not die at the hands of our warriors, but I shall kill him! Maula has a strong arm and can handle the spear with as sure an aim as her brothers. Maula’s hand shall end his life. I have sworn it, if he refuses my love. But he will not,” calming herself. “But you say that in your country the maidens wait to be asked. There must be many who have no husbands.”
“Yes, that is so,” answered Mabel, “but there is one objection to your way; if the man does not love the maiden whom he marries, he will be unhappy. Have you no unhappy marriages?”
“No, they rarely occur. You see, on the day of the maiden’s festival, each maiden chooses the one she loves; from that moment they belong to each other, but at the end of a year she is at liberty to go back to her home and he, also, is permitted to take her back to her father’s house if he finds she is not lovable, kind, obedient and all that he desires in a wife; so that all the time she tries to please him and any maiden can make a man love her by her affectionate gentleness, and when he learns to love her he tries to please her so that, at the yearly feast she shall not wish to leave him, and each year they renew their vows.”