[Takes her flowers and starts to go.]

Ralph (intercepts her)

Great Scott! but you are splendid when you’re mad
Now, please, don’t go; I’m really not so bad: 
I don’t mean half I say.

Girl (turns blazing eyes upon him)

Oh, all you men
Of pallid blood, again, and yet again
Have offered insults to our island races. 
I own we once were savage; and the traces
Of those wild days remain; but, sir, go back
A little way, on your ancestral track,
And see what you will find.  A horde of bold
And lawless cut-throats, started many an old
And purse-proud race; and brutal strength became
The bloody groundwork for pretentious fame
When Might was Right.  If every royal tree
Were dug up by the roots, the world would see
That common mud first mothered the poor sprout. 
Your race is higher than my own, no doubt;
Then shame upon you, for the poor display
Of noble manhood that you make to-day,
Thinking each brown-faced girl your lawful prey.

[Turns her back upon him and starts to go.]

Ralph (pleadingly)

Oh, say now, let a fellow have a show. 
I never meant to rouse your anger so;
I only meant—­I—­well, you see the change
Of climate was so sudden; and the strange
And gorgeous scenery, and your glorious eyes
Upset my brain.  But you have put me wise. 
I own that I had heard —

[Hesitates, and girl breaks forth again.]

Oh, yes, I know you heard
Wild tales of Honolulu; and were stirred
With high ambitions to return to Yale,
The envied hero of a wilder tale;
You thought each maiden on this Isle, perchance
Wore skirts of grass, and danced the Hula dance;
And gave her lips to any man for gold.

Ralph (interrupting)

Oh, ’pon my honour, I was not so bold —

Girl (ignoring, and with vehemence)

You thought the old time licence still prevailed;
You did not know across the heavens had sailed
A beautiful star in brilliancy arrayed,
The self respecting new Hawaiian maid —
Who prides herself upon her blood and birth
And holds her virtue at its priceless worth;
And stands undaunted in her rightful place
Snow white of soul, however brown of face,
Warmer in blood than your white women are
And yet more moral in her life by far
Than many a leader in your halls of fashion.

Ralph (gazing at her with admiration)

I vow I like to see you in a passion;
Such royal rage!  Your forbear was, I know
Kame-a-lili-like-kalico,
Or some such name; who got in that great tiff
And tumbled all his foes down off the cliff. 
I feel I’m lying with them in the valley
While you stand all triumphant, on the Pali.

Girl (smiling and softened)