Chapter 12 - Page 2

the wisdom of perfect beings. He sighed. He felt something invisible
that stood between them, something that would let him approach her so
far, but no farther. No desire, no longing, no effort of will or length
of life could destroy this vague feeling of their difference. With awe
but also with great pride he concluded that it was her own incomparable
perfection. She was his, and yet she was like a woman from another
world. His! His! He exulted in the glorious thought; nevertheless her
tears pained him.

With a wisp of her own hair which he took in his hand with timid
reverence he tried in an access of clumsy tenderness to dry the tears
that trembled on her eyelashes. He had his reward in a fleeting smile
that brightened her face for the short fraction of a second, but soon the
tears fell faster than ever, and he could bear it no more. He rose and
walked towards Almayer, who still sat absorbed in his contemplation of
the sea. It was a very, very long time since he had seen the sea--that
sea that leads everywhere, brings everything, and takes away so much. He
had almost forgotten why he was there, and dreamily he could see all his
past life on the smooth and boundless surface that glittered before his
eyes.

Dain's hand laid on Almayer's shoulder recalled him with a start from
some country very far away indeed. He turned round, but his eyes seemed
to look rather at the place where Dain stood than at the man himself.
Dain felt uneasy under the unconscious gaze.

"What?" said Almayer.

"She is crying," murmured Dain, softly.

"She is crying! Why?" asked Almayer, indifferently.

"I came to ask you. My Ranee smiles when looking at the man she loves.
It is the white woman that is crying now. You would know."

Almayer shrugged his shoulders and turned away again towards the sea.

"Go, Tuan Putih," urged Dain. "Go to her; her tears are more terrible to
me than the anger of gods."

"Are they? You will see them more than once. She told me she could not
live without you," answered Almayer, speaking without the faintest spark
of expression in his face, "so it behoves you to go to her quick, for
fear you may find her dead."

He burst into a loud and unpleasant laugh which made Dain stare at him
with some apprehension, but got off the gunwale of the boat and moved
slowly towards Nina, glancing up at the sun as he walked.

"And you go when the sun is overhead?" he said.

"Yes, Tuan. Then we go," answered Dain.

"I have not long to wait," muttered Almayer. "It is most important for
me to see you go. Both of you. Most important," he repeated,