I nodded happily.
It was tantamount to an agreement.
When I returned to Sydney I missed Laura. I paid a visit to the property. There was a new manager there and he and Laura had become very friendly. I guessed they were in love and when I taxed Laura with it she didn't deny it.
"You'll be dancing at my wedding before I dance at yours," she said. "Don't forget your promise."
I told her I hadn't.
Philip wasn't there. He was doing his year in the hospitals and couldn't get away.
When I went back on holiday to the island it was nearly time for Cougabel's baby to be born. This was a very special birth because it was due nine months after the Night of the Masks and, as until that time, she told me proudly, she had been a virgin, there could be no doubt whose the child was.
"She Mask child and she have Mask child," said Cougaba proudly.
It was typical that Cougaba should go on assuming that we all accepted the fact that Cougabel had been conceived on a night of the dance although she herself had told her that the girl was Luke Carter's daughter. That was a characteristic of the islanders which we found exasperating. They would state something as a fact in face of absolute proof that it was untrue and stubbornly go on believing it.
I had brought a present for the baby, for I was anxious to make up to Cougabel for my neglect in the past. She received me almost regally, accepted the gold chain and pendant which I had bought in Sydney as though, said my irrepressible mother, she was receiving frankincense and myrrh as well as the gold. There was no doubt that Cougabel had become a very important person. She still lived in our house but my mother said we should not keep her, for when the child was born a husband would be found for her and we could be sure that he would be very acceptable. A girl of the Mask, and therefore sure of the Giant's special protection and one who had been born of the Mask herself, as they all believed she had, would be a very worthy wife. And as in addition Cougabel was one of the island's beauties she could expect many offers.
I told Cougabel how glad I was for her.
"I glad too," she said, and made it clear that she was no longer as eager for my company as she had once been.
One night I was disturbed by strange noises and the sound of hurrying footsteps near my room. I put on a robe and went out to investigate. My mother appeared. She took me by the arm and drew me back into the bedroom, shutting the door.
"Cougabel is giving birth," she said.
"So soon?"
"Too soon. The child is a month early."
My mother was looking mysterious and at the same time concerned.
"You see what this means, Suewellyn. It will be said that the child was not conceived on the night."
"Couldn't it be premature?"
"It could be, but you know what these people are. They will say the old Giant would not have let it be born too soon. Oh dear, this could mean trouble. Cougaba is terribly upset. I don't know what we shall do."
"It's all such a lot of nonsense. How is Cougabel?"
"She's all right. Childbearing comes easily to these people who live close to nature."
There was a knock at the door. My mother opened it to disclose Cougaba standing there. She looked at us with great bewildered eyes.
"What's wrong, Cougaba?" asked my mother hastily.
"Come," said Cougaba.
"Is the child all right?" asked my mother.
"Child big, strong, boy child."
"Then Cougabel ..."
Cougaba shook her head.
We went to that room where Cougabel was lying back, triumphant but slightly exhausted. My mother was right. The island women made little trouble of childbearing.
There was the child beside her. His hair was dark brown and straight—quite unlike the thick curly hair of the babies of Vulcan; but it was his skin which was astonishing. It was almost white and that with his straight hair proclaimed the fact that he had white blood in him.
I looked at Cougabel. She was lying there and a strange smile was playing about her lips as her eyes met mine and held them.
There was consternation in the household. First my mother said that none should know that the baby was born. She went at once to tell my father.
"A child that is half white!" he cried. "My God, this is disastrous. And born before the appointed time."
"Of course it could be premature," my mother reminded him.
"They'll never accept that. This could be disastrous for Cougabel ... and us. They will say she was already pregnant before she went to the Mask and you know that's a sin worthy of death in their eyes."
"And the fact that the child is half white ..."
"Cougabel has white blood in her, remember."
"Yes, but ..."
"You can't believe that Philip ... oh no, that's absurd," went on my father. "But who else? Of course Cougabel's father was white and that could account genetically for her giving birth to a child which is even whiter than she is. We know that, but what shall we do about the islanders? One thing is certain. No one outside this house must know that the child is born. Cougaba will have to keep it secret. It is only for a month. Explain to Cougaba. It is necessary, I am sure ... for us all."
And we did that. It was not easy, for the birth of Cougabel's child was awaited with eagerness. Groups of people congregated outside our house. They laid shells round it and many of them went high into the mountain to do homage to the Giant whose child they believed was about to be born.
Cougaba told them that Cougabel needed to rest. The Giant had come to her in a dream and told her that the birth would be difficult. To give birth to his child was not like giving ordinary birth.
Fortunately they accepted this.
My father, always eager to turn disaster into advantage, ordered Cougaba to tell the people that the Giant had come to her in yet another dream and this time he told her that the child would bring a sign for them. He would let them know what he felt about the changes which were coming to the island. In spite of her show of truculence I knew that Cougabel was worried. She understood her people better than we did, and I have no doubt that the premature birth would be as damning in their eyes as the child's color. So both she and Cougaba were ready to follow my father's orders.
The only thing we had to do was keep the birth a secret for a month. In view of the gullibility of the islanders this was not so difficult as it might have been. Cougaba had only to say the Giant had ordered this or that and it was accepted.
But how relieved we were when we could show the baby to the waiting crowd. All our efforts had been worthwhile.
Even Wandalo had to admit that the color of the child indicated that the Giant was pleased by what was happening on the island. He liked the prosperity.
"And most obligingly," said my mother gleefully, "he has stopped that wretched grumbling of his. It couldn't have been more opportune."
So we emerged from this delicate situation. But in spite of my father's assertion that it was not so very rare for a colored person who had had a white father to produce a light-colored child, I kept thinking of Philip and pictures of him and Cougabel laughing together returned again and again to my mind.
I think my feelings toward Philip changed at that time. Or perhaps I was changing. I was growing up.
Susannah on Vulcan Island
Soon after that I went back to school for my last term; and when I came back Philip was installed on the island.
To be with him again reassured me that my suspicions were unfounded. Cougabel had planted those thoughts in my mind and she had done so deliberately. I remember Luke Carter's saying that the islanders were vindictive and never omitted to take revenge. I had made Cougabel jealous and, knowing my feelings for Philip, she was repaying me through him.