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The daughter, Minda by name, was kind and obedient to her mother, and never failed in her duty. Their lodge stood high up on the banks of a lake, which gave them a wide prospect of country, embellished with groves and open fields, which waved with the blue light of their long grass, and made, at all hours of sun and moon, a cheerful scene to look upon.
Then he laid a finger on his own breast and said: "That for mine!" "I'm afraid you've been in bad company," laughed Frank. "You're talking slang! What's your name?" "Minda," was the reply. "Sounds like a girl's name," grunted Pat. "What are the chiefs doing on the island?" "Conference," was the reply. "They're forming a confederacy, are they?" Minda shook his head and looked perplexed.
He spoke with such deep feeling and yet so simply that her heart was touched. A wistful look came into her eyes. "I am still bewildered by it all, Kenny," she said. "In the wink of an eye, everything is altered. I am not Viola Gwyn. I am Minda Carter. I am not your half-sister. You seem suddenly to have gone very far away from me.
When the morning came, Monedowa was early astir, oiling his limbs and enameling his breast and arms with red and blue, resembling the plumage in which he had first appeared to Minda. Upon his brow he placed a tuft of feathers of the same shining tints. By his invitation his wife, Minda, the mother and her young son, attended Monedowa to the manito's racing-ground.
A cold sweat broke out all over him as he stood down by the gate, torn between hatred for one woman and love for another: Rachel and Minda Carter. He could not spare one without sparing the other; lying to one of them meant lying for the other. But there was no alternative.
She crossed the room, but stopped with her hand on the door-latch. Turning to her daughter, she said: "Whatever Kenneth may think of me, he has the greatest respect and admiration for you. He bears no grudge against Minda Carter. On the contrary, he has shown that he would lay down his life for you. You must bear no grudge against him.
This she could not, however, muster heart and courage to do. At last the widow began herself to have a suspicion that her daughter's heart was in the wood, from her long delays in returning, and the little success she had in gathering the fire-branches for which she went in search. In answer to her mother's questions, Minda revealed the truth, and made known her lover's request.
He could think of her only as she was when he last saw her, twenty years ago: tall and straight, with laughing eyes and white teeth, and the colour of tan-bark in her cheeks. Then there had been little Minda, tiny Minda who existed vaguely as a name, nothing more.
You may cast me out of your heart, Viola, but you cannot tear yourself out of mine. So! I have spoken. There is no more." She turned her head to look out of the window. Viola did not move. Presently the older woman spoke again. "Your name is Minda Carter. You will be twenty-two years old next September. You have no right to the name of Gwynne.
With her quick ear for rhythm she had been at once impressed by their names impressed to a degree that savoured of fascination. She would seat the two before her, range the other children beside them, and then lead the chorus in a spirited chant of these names: "Isa Vinda Exene Bloom! Ella Minda Almarine Bloom!"
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