Across the Zodiac

by Percy Greg

  CHAPTER XX - LIFE, SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC.

  As we approached the house I caught sight of Eveena's figure among theparty gathered on the roof. She had witnessed the interview, but herhabitual and conscientious deference forbade her to ask a confidencenot volunteered; and she seemed fully satisfied when, on the firstoccasion on which we were alone, I told her simply that the strangerbelonged to the Zinta and had been recommended by her father himselfto the charge of my estate. Though reluctant to disturb her mind withfears she could not shake off as I could, and which would make myevery absence at least a season of terror, the sense of insecuritydoubtless rendered me more anxious to enjoy whenever possible the onlysociety in which it was permissible to be frank and off my guard. Noman in his senses would voluntarily have accepted the position whichhad been forced upon me. The Zveltau never introduce aliens into theirhouseholds. Their leading ideas and fundamental principles so deeplyaffect the conduct of existence, the motives of action, the bases ofall moral reasoning--so completely do the inferences drawn from themand the habits of thought to which they lead pervade and tinge themind, conscience, and even language--that though it may be easy to"live in the light at home and walk with the blind abroad," yet in thefamiliar intercourse of household life even a cautious and reservedman (and I was neither) must betray to the keen instinctiveperceptions of women whether he thought and felt like those aroundhim, or was translating different thoughts into an alien language.This difficulty is little felt between unbelievers and Christians. Thesimple creed of the Zinta, however, like that of the Prophet, affectsthe thought and life as the complicated and subtle mysteries of moreelaborate theologies, more refined philosophic systems rarely do.

  One of Eveena's favourite quotations bore the unmistakable stamp ofZveltic mysticism:--

  "Symbols that invert the sense Form the Seal of Providence; Contradiction gives the key, Time unlocks the mystery."

  The danger in which my relation to the Zinta and its chief involvedme, and the presence of half a dozen rivals to Eveena--rivals also tothat regard for the Star which at first I felt chiefly for hersake--likely as they seemed to impair the strength and sweetness ofthe tie between us, actually worked to consolidate and endear it. Toenjoy, except on set occasions, without constant liability tointerruption, Eveena's sole society was no easy matter. To conceal ourreal secret, and the fact that there was a secret, was imperative.Avowedly exclusive confidence, conferences from which the rest of thehousehold were directly shut out, would have suggested to theirenvious tempers that Eveena played the spy on them, or influenced andadvised the exercise of my authority. To be alone with her, therefore,as naturally and necessarily I must often wish to be, requiredmanoeuvres and arrangements as delicate and difficult, though asinnocent, as those employed by engaged couples under the strictconventions of European household usage; and the comparative rarity ofsuch interviews, and the manner in which they had often to becontrived beforehand, kept alive in its earliest freshness the lovewhich, if not really diminished, generally loses somewhat of its firstbloom and delicacy in the unrestrained intercourse of marriage.Absolutely and solely trusted, assured that her company was eagerlysought, and at least as deeply valued as ever--compelled by the ideasof her race to accept the situation as natural and right, and whollyincapable of the pettier and meaner forms of jealousy--Eveena wasfully content and happy in her relations with me. That, on the whole,she was not comfortable, or at least much less so than during oursuddenly abbreviated honeymoon, was apparent; but her loss ofbrightness and cheerfulness was visible chiefly in her weary anddowncast looks on any occasion when, after being absent for some hoursfrom the house, I came upon her unawares. In my presence she wasalways calm and peaceful, kind, and seemingly at ease; and if she sawor heard me on my return, though she carefully avoided any appearanceof eagerness to greet me sooner than others, or to claim especialattention, she ever met me with a smile of welcome as frank and brightas a young bride on Earth could give to a husband returning to hersole society from a long day of labour for her sake.

  In so far as compliance was possible I was compelled to admit thewisdom of Eveena's plea that no open distinction should be made in herfavour. Except in the simple fact of our affection, there was noassignable reason for making her my companion more frequently thanEunane or Eive. Except that I could trust her completely, there was nodistinction of age, social rank, or domestic relation to afford apretext for exempting her from restraints which, if at first I thoughtthem senseless and severe, were soon justified by experience of thekind of domestic control which just emancipated school-girls expectedand required. Nor would she accept the immunity tacitly allowed her.It was not that any established custom or right bounded the arbitrarypower of domestic autocracy. The right of all but unbounded wrong, theliberty of limitless caprice, is unquestionably vested in the head ofthe household. But the very completeness of the despotism rendered itsexercise impossible. Force cannot act where there is no resistance.The sword of the Plantagenet could cleave the helmet but not the quiltof down. I could do as I pleased without infringing any understandingor giving any right to complain.

  "But," said Eveena, "you have a sense of justice which has nothing todo with law or usage. Even your language is not ours. You think ofright and wrong, where we should speak only of what is or is notpunishable. You can make a favourite if you will pay the price. Couldyou endure to be hated in your own home, or I to know that youdeserved it? Or, if you could, could you bear to see me hated and mylife made miserable?"

  "They dare not!" I returned angrily fearing that they had dared, andthat she had already felt the spite she was so careful not to provoke.

  "Do you think that feminine malice cannot contrive to envenom a dozenstings that I could not explain if I would, and you could not dealwith if I did?"

  "But," I replied, "it seems admitted that there is no such thing asright or custom. As Enva said, I have bought and paid for them, andmay do what I please within the contract; and you agree that is justwhat any other man in this world would do."

  "Yes," returned Eveena, "and I watched your face while Enva spoke. Howdid you like her doctrine? Of course you may do as you please--if youcan please. You may silence discontent, you may suppress spitefulinnuendos and even sulky looks, you may put down mutiny, by sheerterror. Can you? You may command me to go with you whenever you goout; you may take the same means to make me complain of unkindness asto make them conceal it; you may act like one of our own people, ifyou can stoop to the level of their minds. But we both know that youcan do nothing of the kind. How could you bear to be driven intounsparing and undeserved severity, who can hardly bring yourself toenforce the discipline necessary to peace and comfort on those whowill only be ruled by fear and would like you better if they fearedyou more? Did you hear the proverb Leenoo muttered, very unjustly,when she left your room yesterday, 'A favourite wears out manysandals'? No! You see the very phrase wounds and disgusts you. But youwould find it a true one. Can you take vengeance for a fault you haveyourself provoked? Can you decide without inquiry, condemn withoutevidence, punish without hearing? Men do these things, of course, andwomen expect them. But you--I do not say you would be ashamed so toact--you cannot do it, any more than you can breathe the air of oursnow-mountains."

  "At all events, Eveena, I no more dare do it in your presence than Idare forswear the Faith we hold in common."

  But whatever Eveena might exact or I concede, the distinction betweenthe wife who commanded as much respect as affection, and the girls whocould at best be pets or playthings, was apparent against our will inevery detail of daily life and domestic intercourse. It was alikeimpossible to treat Eveena as a child and to rule Enva or Eirale asother than children. It was as unnatural to use the tone of command orrebuke to one for whom my unexpressed wishes were absolute law, as toobserve the form of request or advice in directing or reproving thosewhose obedience depended on the consequences of rebellion. It onlymade matters worse that the distinction corresponded but tooaccurately to t
heir several deserts. No faults could have been soirritating to Eveena's companions as her undeniable faultlessness.

  The ludicrous aspect of my relation to the rest of the household waseven more striking than I had expected. That I should find myself inthe absurd position of a man entrusted with the direct personalgovernment of half-a-dozen young ladies was even "more truly spokethan meant." One at least among them might singly have made in time anot unlovable wife, and all, perhaps, might severally and separatelyhave been reduced to conjugal complaisance. Collectively, they were,as Eveena had said, a set of school-girls, and school-girls used tostricter restraint and much sharper discipline than those of a Frenchor Italian convent. They would have made life a burden to a vigorousEnglish schoolmistress, and imperilled the soul of any Lady-Abbesswhose list of permissible penances excluded the dark cell and thescourge. Fortunately for both parties, I had the advantage ofgoverness and Superior in the natural awe which girls feel for theauthority of manhood--till they have found out of what soft fibre menare made--and in the artificial fear inspired by domestic usage andtradition. For I was soon aware that even on its ridiculous side therelation was not to be trifled with. The simple indifference a manfeels towards the escapades of girlhood was not applicable to womenand wives, who yet lacked womanly sense and the feeling of conjugalduty. This serious aspect of their position soon contracted theindulgence naturally conceded to youth's heedlessness and animalspirits. These, displayed at first only in the energy and eagerness oftheir every movement within the narrow limits of conventional usage,broke all bounds when, after one or two half-timid, half-venturousexperiments on my patience, they felt that they had, at least for themoment, exchanged the monotony, the mechanical routine, the sternrepression of their life in the great Nurseries, not for the harshhousehold discipline to which they naturally looked forward, but forthe "loosened zone" which to them seemed to promise absolute liberty.When not immediately in my presence or Eveena's, their keen enjoymentof a life so new, the sudden development of the brighter side of theirnature under circumstances that gave play to the vigorous vitality ofyouth, gave as much pleasure to me as to themselves. But in contactwith myself or Eveena they were women, and showed only the wrong sideof the varied texture of womanhood. To the master they were slaves,each anxious to attract his notice, win his preference; before thefavourite, spiteful, envious of her and of each other, bitter,malicious, and false. For Eveena's sake, it was impossible to look onwith indolent indifference on freaks of temper which, childish in theform they assumed, were envenomed by the deliberate dislike andunscrupulous cunning of jealous women.

  But even on the childish side of their character and conduct, theysoon displayed a determination to test by actual experiment the utmostextent of the liberty allowed, and the nature and sufficiency of itslimits. Eunane was always the most audacious trespasser andrepresentative rebel. Fortunately for her, the daring which hadbewildered and exasperated feminine guardians rather amused andinterested me, giving some variety and relief to the monotonousabsurdity of the situation. Nothing in her conduct was more remarkableor more characteristic than the simplicity and good temper with whichshe generally accepted as of course the less agreeable consequences ofher outbreaks; unless it were the sort of natural dignity with which,when she so pleased, the game played out and its forfeit paid, thenaughty child subsided into the lively but rational companion, and thewoman simply ignored the scrapes of the school-girl.

  As her character seemed to unfold, Eive's individuality became asdistinctly parted from the rest as Eunane's, though in an oppositedirection. Comparatively timid and indolent, without their fulness oflife, she seemed to me little more than a child; and she fell withapparent willingness into that position, accepting naturally itsprivileges and exemptions. She alone was never in the way, nevervexatious or exacting. Content with the notice that naturally fell toher share, she obtained the more. Never intruding between Eveena andmyself, she alone was not wholly unwelcome to share our accidentalprivacy when, in the peristyle or the grounds, the others left ustemporarily alone. On such occasions she would often draw near andcrouch at my feet or by Eveena's side, curling herself like a kittenupon the turf or among the cushions, often resting her little headupon Eveena's knee or mine; generally silent, but never so silent asto seem to be a spy upon our conversation, rather as a favourite childprivileged, in consideration of her quietude and her supposedharmlessness and inattention, to remain when others are excluded, andto hear much to which she is supposed not to listen. Having no specialduties of her own in the household, she would wait upon and assistEveena whenever the latter would accept her attendance. When the wholeparty were assembled, it was her wont to choose her place not in thecircle, still less at my side--Eveena's title to the post of honour onthe left being uncontested, and Eunane generally occupying thecushions on my right. But Eive, lying at our feet, would supportherself on her arm between my knee and Eunane's, content to attract myhand to play with her curls or stroke her head. Under suchencouragement she would creep on to my lap and rest there, but seldomtook any part in conversation, satisfied with the attention one payshalf-consciously to a child. A word that dropped from Enva, however,on one occasion, obliged me to observe that it was in Eveena's absencethat Eive always seemed most fully aware of her privileges and mostlavish of her childlike caresses. The kind of notice and affection sheobtained did not provoke the envy even of Leenoo or Eirale. She nomore affected to imitate Eveena's absolute devotion than she venturedon Eunane's reckless petulance. She kept my interest alive by thefaults of a spoiled child. Her freaks were always such as to demandimmediate repression without provoking serious displeasure, so thatthe temporary disgrace cost her little, and the subsequentreconciliation strengthened her hold on my heart. But with Eveena, orin her presence, Eive's waywardness was so suppressed or controlledthat Eveena's perceptible coolness towards her--it was never coldnessor unkindness--somewhat surprised me.

  Few Martialists, when wealthy enough to hand over the management oftheir property to others, care to interfere, or even to watch itscultivation. This, however, to me was a subject of as much interest asany other of the many peculiarities of Martial society, commerce, andindustry, which it concerned me to investigate and understand; andwhen not otherwise employed, I spent great part of my day in watching,and now and then directing, the work that went on during the whole ofthe sunlight, and not unfrequently during the night, upon my farm.Davilo, the superintendent, had engaged no fewer than eightsubordinates, who, with the assistance of the ambau, the carvee, andthe electric machines, kept every portion of the ground in the mostperfect state of culture. The most valuable part of the produceconsisted of those farinaceous fruits, growing on trees from twenty toeighty feet in height, which form the principal element of Martialfood. Between the tropics these trees yield ripe fruit twice a year,during a total period of about three of our months--perhaps for ahundred days. Various gourds, growing chiefly on canes, hanging fromlong flexile stalks that spring from the top of the stem at a heightof from three to eight feet, yield juice which is employed partly inflavouring the various loaves and cakes into which the flour is made,partly in the numerous beverages (never allowed to ferment, andconsequently requiring to be made fresh every day), of which thesmallest Martial household has a greater variety than the mostluxurious palace of the East. The best are made from hard-skinnedfruits, whose whole pulp is liquified by piercing the rind before thefruit is fully ripe, and closing the orifice with a wax-likesubstance, almost exactly according to a practice common in differentparts of Asia. The drinks are made, of course, at home. Thefarinaceous fruits are sold to the confectioners, who take also aportion of the milk and all the meat supplied by the pastures. Manychoice fruits grow on shrubs, ranging from the size of a large blackcurrant tree to that of the smallest gooseberry bush. Vines growingalong the ground bear clustering nuts, whose kernels are sometimes ashard as that of a cocoa-nut, sometimes almost as soft as butter. Thelatter with the juicy fruits, are preserved if necessary for a wholeyear i
n storehouses dug in the ground and lined with concrete, inwhich, by chemical means, a temperature a little above thefreezing-point is steadily maintained at very trivial cost. The numberof dishes producible by the mixture of these various materials, withthe occasional addition of meat, fish, and eggs, is enormous; and itis only when some particular compound is in special favour with themaster of the house that it makes its appearance more than perhapsonce in ten days upon the same table. The invention of theconfectioners is exquisite and inexhaustible; and every table issupplied with a variety of dainties sufficient for a feast in the mosthospitable and wealthy household of Europe. Many of the smallerfruit-trees and shrubs yield two crops in the year. The vegetables,crisper, and of much more varied taste than the best Terrestrialsalads, sometimes possessing a flavour as _piquant_ as that ofcinnamon or nutmeg, are gathered continuously from one end of the yearto the other.

  The vines, tough and fibrous, supply the best and strongest cordageused in Mars. For this purpose they are dried, stripped, combed, andput through an elaborate process of manufacture, which, withoutweakening the fibres, renders them smooth, and removes the knots inwhich they naturally abound. The twisted cord of the nut-vine isalmost as strong as a metallic wire rope of half its measurement.There is another purpose for which these fibres in their natural stateare employed. Simply dried and twisted, they form a scourge asterrible as the Russian knout or African cowhide, though of adifferent character--a scourge which, even in its lightest form,reduces the wildest herd to instant order; and which, as employed oncriminals, is hardly less dreaded than that electric rack wherebyMartial science inflicts on every nerve a graduated torture such aseven ecclesiastical malignity has not invented on Earth--such as Icertainly will not place in the hands of Terrestrial rulers.

  All these crops are raised with marvellously little human labour, thewhole work of ploughing and sowing being done by machinery, that ofweeding and harvesting chiefly by the carvee. The ambau climb thetrees and pick the fruit from the ends of the branches, which they arealso taught to pinch in, so that none grow so long as to break withthe weight of these creatures, as clever and agile as the smallermonkeys, but almost as large as an ordinary baboon. It must always beremembered that, size for size, and _caeteris paribus,_ all bodies,animate and inanimate, on Mars weigh less than half as much as theywould on Earth. Eunane's blunder about the _carcara_ was not explainedby any subsequent errors of the ambau or carvee, which always selectedthe ripe fruit with faultless skill, leaving the immature untouched,and throwing aside in small heaps to manure the ground the few thathad been allowed to grow too ripe for use. The sums paid from time totime into my hands, received from the sales of produce, were fargreater than I could possibly spend in gratifying any taste of my own;and, as I presently found, the idea that the surplus might indulgethose of the ladies never entered their minds.

  Before we had been settled in our home for three days Eveena had madetwo requests which I was well pleased to grant. First, she entreatedthat I would teach her one at least of the languages with which I wasfamiliar--a task of whose extreme difficulty she had little idea.Compared with her native tongue, the complication and irregularitiesof the simplest language spoken on Earth are far more arbitrary andprovoking than seems the most difficult of ancient or Oriental tonguesto a Frenchman or Italian. In order to fulfil my promise that sheshould assist me in recording my observations and writing out mynotes, I chose Latin. Unhappily for her, I found myself as impatientand unsuccessful as I was inexperienced in teaching; and nothing buther exquisite gentleness and forbearance could have made the lessonsotherwise than painful to us both. Well for me that the "right togovern wrong" was to her a simple truth--an inalienable maritalprivilege, to be met with that unqualified submission which must haveshamed the worst temper into self-control. Eive on one occasion made asimilar request; but besides that I realised the convenience of amedium of communication understood by ourselves alone, I had noinclination to expose either my own temper or Eive's to the trial.Eveena's second request came naturally from one whose favouriteamusement had been the raising and modification of flowers. She askedto be entrusted with the charge of the seeds I had brought from Earth,and to be permitted to form a bed in the peristyle for the purpose ofthe experiment. Though this disfigured the perfect arrangement of thegarden, I was delighted to have so important and interesting a problemworked out by hands so skilful and so careful. I should probably havefailed to rear a single plant, even had I been familiar with thoseapplications of electricity to the purpose which are so extensivelyemployed in Mars. Eveena managed to produce specimens strangelyaltered, sometimes stunted, sometimes greatly improved, from aboutone-fourth of the seeds entrusted to her; and among those with whichshe was most brilliantly successful were some specimens of Turkishroses, the roses of the attar, which I had obtained at Stamboul. Myadmiration of her patience and pleasure in her success deeplygratified her; and it was a full reward for all her trouble when Isuggested that she should send to her sister Zevle a small packet ofeach of the seeds with which she had succeeded. It happened, however,that the few rose seeds had all been planted; and the flowers, thoughapparently perfect, produced no seed of their own, probably becausethey were not suited to the taste of the flower-birds, and Eveenasomehow forgot or failed to employ the process of artificialfertilisation.

  If anything could have fully reconciled my conscience to the householdrelations in which I was rather by weakness than by will inextricablyentangled, it would have been the certainty that by the sacrificeEveena had herself enforced on me, and which she persistently refusedto recognise as such, she alone had suffered. True that I could notgive, and could hardly affect for the wives bestowed on me byanother's choice, even such love as the head of a Moslem household maydistribute among as many inmates. But to what I could call love theyhad never looked forward. But for the example daily presented beforetheir own eyes they would no more have missed than they comprehendedit. That they were happier than they had expected, far happier thanthey would have been in an ordinary home, happier certainly than inthe schools they had quitted, I could not doubt, and they did notaffect to deny. If my patience were not proof against vexations themore exasperating from their pettiness, and the sense of ridiculewhich constantly attached to them, I could read in the manner of mostand understand from the words of Eunane, who seldom hesitated to speakher mind, whether its utterances, were flattering or wounding, thatshe and her companions found me not only far more indulgent, butincomparably more just than they had been taught to hope a man couldbe. Of justice, indeed, as consisting in restraint on one's own temperand consideration for the temper of others, Martial manhood isincapable, or, at any rate, Martial womanhood never suspects itsmasters.

  Moreover, though no longer blest with the spirits of youth, andfinding little pleasure in what youth calls pleasure, I had escapedthe kind of satiety that seems to attend lives more softly spent thanmine had been; and found a very real and unfading enjoyment inwitnessing the keen enjoyment of these youthful natures in suchliberty as could be accorded and such amusements as the life of thisdull and practical world affords.

  Among these, two at least are closely similar to the two favouritepleasures of European society. Music appears to have been carried,like most arts and sciences, to a point of mechanical perfectionwhich, I should suppose, like much of the artificial accuracy and easewhich civilisation has introduced, mars rather than enhances thenatural gratification enjoyed by simpler ages and races. Almost deafto music as distinguished from noise, I did not attempt to comprehendthe construction of Martial instruments or the nature of the concordsthey emitted. One only struck me with especial surprise by apeculiarity which, if I could not understand, I could not mistake. Anumber of variously coloured flames are made to synchronise with oractually emit a number of corresponding notes, dancing to, or, moreproperly, weaving a series of strangely combined movements in accordwith the music, whose vibrations were directly and inseparablyconnected with their motion. But all music is the work of profession
almusicians, never the occupation of woman's leisure, never made morecharming to the ear by its association with the movement of belovedhands or the tones of a cherished voice. Electric wires, connectedwith the vast buildings wherein instruments produce what sounds likefine choral singing as well as musical notes, enable the householderto turn on at pleasure music equal, I suppose, to the finest operaticperformances or the grandest oratorio, and listen to it at leisurefrom the cushions of his own peristyle. This was a great though notwholly new delight to Eunane and most of her companions. For theirsake only would Eveena ever have resorted to it, for though herselfappreciating music not less highly, and educated to understand it muchmore thoroughly, than they, she could derive little gratification fromthat which was clearly incomprehensible if not disagreeable tome--could hardly enjoy a pleasure I could not share.

  The theatre was a more prized and less common indulgence. It is littlefrequented by the elder Martialists; and not enjoying it themselves,they seldom sacrifice their hours to the enjoyment of their women. Butit forms so important an aid to education, and tends so much to keepalive in the public memory impressions which policy will not permit tofade, that both from the State and from the younger portion of thecommunity it receives an encouragement quite sufficient to reward thefew who bestow their time and talent upon it. Great buildings, squareor oblong in form, the stage placed at one end, the arched boxes orgalleries from which the spectators look down thereon rising tierabove and behind tier to the further extremity, are constantly filled.There are no actors, and Martial feeling would hardly allow theappearance of women as actresses. But an art, somewhat analogous to,but infinitely surpassing, that displayed in the manipulation of themost skilfully constructed and most complicated magic lanterns,enables the conductors of the theatre to present upon the stage atruly living and moving picture of any scene they desire to exhibit.The figures appear perfectly real, move with perfect, freedom, andseem to speak the sounds which, in fact, are given out by a gigantichidden phonograph, into which the several parts have long ago beencarefully spoken by male and female voices, the best suited to eachcharacter; and which, by the reversal of its motion, can repeat theoriginal words almost for ever, with the original tone, accent, andexpression. The illusion is far more perfect than that obtained by allthe resources of stage management and all the skill of the actor's artin the best theatres of France. After the first novelty, the firstsurprise and wonder were exhausted, I must confess that theserepresentations simply bored me, the more from their length andcharacter. But even Eveena enjoyed them thoroughly, and my othercompanions prized an evening or afternoon thus spent above all otherindulgences. A passage running along at the back of each tier admitsthe spectator to boxes so completely private as to satisfy thestrictest requirements of Martial seclusion.

  The favourite scenes represent the most striking incidents of Martialhistory, or realise the life, usages, and manners of ages long goneby, before science and invention had created the perfect butmonotonous civilisation that now prevails. One of the most interestingperformances I witnessed commenced with the exhibition of a strikingscene, in which the union of all the various States that had up tothat time divided the planet's surface, and occasionally waged war onone another, in the first Congress of the World, was realised in theexact reproduction of every detail which historic records havepreserved. Afterwards was depicted the confusion, declining intobarbarism and rapid degradation, of the Communistic revolution, thesecession of the Zveltau and their merely political adherents, theconstruction of their cities, fleets, and artillery, the terriblebattles, in which the numbers of the Communists were hurled back orannihilated by the asphyxiator and the lightning gun; and finally, themost remarkable scene in all Martial history, when the lastrepresentatives of the great Anarchy, squalid, miserable, degraded,and debased in form and features, as well as indicating by their dressand appearance the utter ruin of art and industry under their rule,came into the presence of the chief ruler of the risingState--surrounded by all the splendour which the "magic of property,"stimulating invention and fostering science, had created--to entreatadmission into the realm of restored civilisation, and a share in theblessings they had so deliberately forfeited and so long striven todeny to others.