however friendly we might be in public, under no circumstances was Evalani ever to come to our home; this out of consideration for my mother. I stated with dignity that nothing could possibly tempt Evalani to come even if I asked her to, and reminded him that her family name was Hookano. And that closed the episode.
"Probably you know that I went to the mainland to school for a time, and when I came back Evalani had finished Punahou and had come back up here on Tantalus to live with her grandmother again. Of course she occasionally came down to town to visit her aunt, but naturally we did not see nearly so much of each other, though our friendship was essentially just as strong, and when we did meet, we were just as intimate as ever.
"And then David Malua came into my life." The girl was silent for a few moments, her eyes closed and her face strangely immobile in the moonlight. Then she raised herself on her cushions and turned breathlessly upon Dick. "That," she said, "was like the gorgeous blossoming of a poinciana tree. My life suddenly flamed into intense living and eager loving. It was a mad love, an irresistible force, that tore me with both joy and fear. I had always had everything that I wanted, all my life, and now I wanted David. Nothing else mattered, no one else existed; it was all David, David, and nothing else in the world. And he loved me, too. He always loved
