"Oh, what are they going to do to us?
Will they kill us for this?
I'm so horribly afraid! Oh, why did I ever do it!" The poor little bride, meanwhile, left alone on the carpet, and unnoticed by everybody, sank suddenly down on the mats where she stood, buried her face in her hands, and began to sob as if her heart would break.
Evidently, something very untoward of some sort had happened to the dusky lady on her wedding morning.
The final touch was too much for poor Muriel's overwrought nerves.

She, too, gave way in a tempest of sobs, and, subsiding on one of the native stools hard by, burst into tears herself with half-hysterical violence.
Instantly, as she did so, the whole assembly seemed to change its mind again as if by contagious magic.

A loud shout of "She cries; the Queen of the Clouds cries!" went up from all the assembled mob to heaven.

"It is a good omen," Toko, the Shadow, whispered in Polynesian to Felix, seeing his puzzled look.

"We shall have plenty of rain now; the clouds will break; our crops will flourish." Almost before she understood it, Muriel was surrounded by an eager and friendly crowd, still afraid to draw near, but evidently anxious to see and to comfort and console her.