Let them be angry, I will stand between you and them, even as my father's shield did between him and the foe that sought his life." But she was firm, and promised nothing more than that she would not marry the Bear, or any one else; and they returned to her father's teepee, little thinking that any one had overheard their conversation.
But the "Swan" had heard every word of it.
She loved the Shield, and she had seen him follow his cousin.

After hearing enough to know that her case was a hopeless one, she made up her mind to make Sacred Wind pay dearly for the love which she herself could not obtain.
She did not at once tell the news.

She wanted to amuse herself with her victim before she destroyed her; and she had hardly yet made up her mind as to the way which she would take to inform the family of Sacred Wind of the secret she had found out.
But she could not resist the temptation of whispering to Sacred Wind her knowledge of the true reason why she would not marry the Bear.

This was the first blow, and it struck to the heart; it made a wound which was long kept open by the watchful eye of jealousy.
The grandmother, however, did not hear the remark; if she had she would not have sat still smoking--not she! she would have trembled with rage that a Dahcotah maiden, and her grandchild, should be guilty of the enormous crime of loving a cousin.

An eruption of Vesuvius would have given but a faint idea of her fury.
Most fortunately for herself, the venerable old medicine woman died a few days after.