They had been silent for the first few minutes since leaving the schooner, till at length Mr. Rhys asked her, with a little of the sweet arch smile she remembered so well, "how she had liked the first sight of a Fijian?" It brought such a rush upon Eleanor of past things and present, old times and changes, that it was with the utmost difficulty she could make any answer at all.
"I was too much interested to think of liking or disliking."
"You were not startled?"
"No."
"That was a heathen chief, of the opposite village."
"He wanted something, did he not?"
"Yes; that the captain of the schooner should accommodate him in something he thought would be for his advantage. It was impossible, and so I told him."
Eleanor looked again towards the oarsman.
"This is one of our Christian brethren."
"Are there many?" she asked, though feeling as if she had no breath to ask.