Nothing good to her could result from a union between her child and the daughter of Tyope.

That union would be sure to lead Okoya over to the home of his betrothed, which was the home of her mother, where he could not fail to gradually succumb to the influence which that mother of Mitsha, a sensual, cunning, sly woman utterly subservient to her husband, would undoubtedly exert upon him.

It was not maternal jealousy that beset her now and filled her with flaming passion, it was fear for her own personal safety.

Under the influence of sudden displeasure human thought runs sometimes astray with terrific swiftness.

Say Koitza saw her son already going to the house of that fiend, Tyope, night after night, whereas in reality he had never called there as yet.