Nothing that I could have
given the queen would have pleased her more. My present at once brought
me into favour, for all appeared to regard such a prodigy as the work
of immortals.
Queen Melannie, having appropriated Anna's mirror, and finding I
understood what she said to me, then dismissed her attendants and
invited me to a private audience. I asked her how she, a white lady,
came to be among savages, but she could tell me nothing except that she
remembered standing upon the beach as a child, alone, when it was very
cold, and that she cried very much, until the natives had brought her
into this house, where she had been reared and cared for ever since.
"They tell me I was born of the sea," she said, "but I do not believe
that, for I seem to remember other faces, like yours, before I came
here."
It was then plain to me that this poor girl had been shipwrecked as a
child, and cast upon this island. It was sad to think that one so
beautiful should be condemned to live among savages, but I reflected
that my own case was no better, for it seemed unlikely I would return
to civilization. Melannie appeared to place full confidence in me from
our first meeting.
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