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My husband is big yet not brave," she said, "but I do not think he meant to hurt you, woman." "Do you speak to me, wife of Masapo?" asked Nandie with gentle dignity, as she gained her feet and picked up the stunned child. "If so, my name and titles are the Inkosazana Nandie, daughter of the Black One and wife of the lord Saduko." "Your pardon," replied Mameena humbly, for she was cowed at once.
Presuming on her rank and position as head-wife, Nandie treated her like a servant nay, like a little dog, to be beaten with a stick. She wished that Nandie would die. "It will be very unlucky for you if she does," I answered, "for then, perhaps, Zikali will be summoned to look into the matter, as he was before." What was she to do, she went on, ignoring my remark.
This was more than I could stand, so I, too, rose and asked him what he meant, adding in the irritation of the moment that if I had wished to rob him of his beautiful Mameena, I thought I could have done so long ago a remark that staggered him a little. Then Nandie rose also, and spoke in her quiet voice.
For a while Nandie bore it with patience, but at length she took advantage of a pause in the conversation to say in her firm, low voice: "This is my hut, daughter of Umbezi, a thing which you remember well enough when it is a question whether Saduko, our husband, shall visit you or me.
"Yes, yes, it is I, Saduko," I said in a cheerful voice; "and there is no man to get between us; only the lady Nandie, your wife, and myself are in the hut; she who watched you has gone." "Oh, no, Macumazahn, there is another in the hut whom you cannot see. There he stands," and he pointed towards the hearth. "Look! The spear is through him and his plume lies on the ground!"
Why should he not, since the Princess Nandie is to be given to him in marriage? Certainly, Umbelazi, you would do well to take the cattle which this white trader has refused, for all men know that you have earned them." Now Umbelazi sprang up, straightening himself to the full of his great height, and spoke in a voice that was thick with passion.
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