He laid the sleepy child on the seat of the big rocking-chair, on a pillow which he took out of his own hammock, and stood for a while looking down at her with tender and pensive eyes.

The child, tired and hot, moved uneasily, sighed, and looked up at him with the veiled look of sleepy fatigue.

He picked up from the floor a broken palm-leaf fan, and began fanning gently the flushed little face.

Her eyelids fluttered and Almayer smiled.

A responsive smile brightened for a second her heavy eyes, broke with a dimple the soft outline of her cheek; then the eyelids dropped suddenly, she drew a long breath through the parted lips--and was in a deep sleep before the fleeting smile could vanish from her face.
Almayer moved lightly off, took one of the wooden armchairs, and placing it close to the balustrade of the verandah sat down with a sigh of relief.