She is worthy to be of my family. I
have waited for such an one. Her speech is strange, but her blood
answers mine. It is idle to mourn. I will replace the dead with the
living. This woman shall be no more the white thrush. She shall be
Mimi, the turtle dove, the daughter of Onanguisse. Brethren, bear
witness. Mimi is no longer dead. She stands here." He stepped closer
to the woman. "I give you this cloak that you may wrap me in your
memory," he went on. "I hereby confirm my words;" and thereupon, he
threw over her shoulders a long, shining mantle made of the small skins
of the white hare. It was a robe for an empress.
I stepped forward, then stood still, and resolved to trust the woman as
she had asked.
"You are adopted," I prompted softly, with no motion of my lips.
She understood. Wrapped in her white cloak, she curtsied low before
Onanguisse. Then she turned to me. "Tell him," she said, "that my
heart is wiser than my tongue; the one is dumb, but the other answers.
Say to him that I see his face, and it tells me that he has lived
wisely and with honor. I am now of his family. I, too, will strive to
live wisely, that he need not be shamed. Say to him that I will not
forget.
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