Angels and Women (1924)

52 ANGELS AND WOMENfrom Samoula aroused me. She was tryingto raise my father, and loudly entreating himto speak. Our old servants awoke and camehurriedly forward, but all help was in vain.Allimades was dead.In our distress and confusion we knewnot what to do; our piteous cries rent the air.At that moment two grand looking personscame to the water’s edge and kindly profferedtheir assistance. They seemed to bemen; but by the newly acquired sense I knewthat the name of one was Satanas and of theother Hesperus. Samoula, too much distractedto observe my whispered caution,willingly yielded to their seeming kindness;the body of Allimades was covered with asail-cloth, and we floated homeward, hurriedalong by the current of the stream. Our newacquaintances told my mother that her husbandhad died of a sudden and fatal diseasepeculiar to that locality; it was a miracle wewere not all dead; she must submit to theinevitable; they would convey us to our