Yet it was not so, for I did but suffer the doom which I had
read to fulfil itself as it must do."
He rose to his feet and, resting on his staff, laid one withered hand
upon the head of Benita.
"Maiden," he said, "we meet no more beneath the sun. Yet because you
have brought deliverance to my people, because you are sweet and pure
and true, take with you the blessing of Munwali, spoken by the mouth of
his servant Mambo, the old Molimo of Bambatse. Though from time to time
you must know tears and walk in the shade of sorrows, long and happy
shall be your days with him whom you have chosen. Children shall spring
up about you, and children's children, and with them also shall the
blessing go. The gold you white folk love is yours, and it shall
multiply and give food to the hungry and raiment to those that are
a-cold. Yet in your own heart lies a richer store that cannot melt away,
the countless treasure of mercy and of love. When you sleep and when
you wake Love shall take you by the hand, till at length he leads you
through life's dark cave to that eternal house of purest gold which soon
or late those that seek it shall inherit," and with his staff he pointed
to the glowing morning sky wherein one by one little rosy clouds floated
upwards and were lost.
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