"
Had she been struck to the earth she could not have been paler. She
thought her secret was hid in her own heart. She had tried to cease
thinking of "The Shield;" keeping away from him, dreading to find true
what she only suspected. She did not dare acknowledge even to herself
that she loved a cousin.
But when the Shield gave her his handsomest trinkets; when he followed
her when she left her laughing and noisy companions to sit beside the
still waters--when he told her that she was the most beautiful girl
among the Dahcotahs--when he whispered her that he loved her dearly;
and would marry her in spite of mothers, grandmothers, customs and
religion too--then she found that her cousin was dearer to her than all
the world--that she would gladly die with him--she could never live
without him.
But still, she would not promise to marry him. What would her friends
say? and the spirits of the dead would torment her, for infringing upon
the sacred customs of her tribe. The Shield used many arguments, but all
in vain. She told him she was afraid to marry him, but that she would
never marry any one else.
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