Angels and Women (1924)

52 ANGELS AND WOMEN
from Samoula aroused me. She was trying
to raise my father, and loudly entreating him
to speak. Our old servants awoke and came
hurriedly forward, but all help was in vain.
Allimades was dead.
In our distress and confusion we knew
not what to do; our piteous cries rent the air.
At that moment two grand looking persons
came to the water’s edge and kindly proffered
their assistance. They seemed to be
men; but by the newly acquired sense I knew
that the name of one was Satanas and of the
other Hesperus. Samoula, too much distracted
to observe my whispered caution,
willingly yielded to their seeming kindness;
the body of Allimades was covered with a
sail-cloth, and we floated homeward, hurried
along by the current of the stream. Our new
acquaintances told my mother that her husband
had died of a sudden and fatal disease
peculiar to that locality; it was a miracle we
were not all dead; she must submit to the
inevitable; they would convey us to our