Across the Zodiac

by Percy Greg

  CHAPTER XXI - PRIVATE AUDIENCES.

  I spent my days between mist and mist, according to the Martialsaying, not infrequently in excursions more or less extensive andadventurous, in which I could but seldom ask Eveena's company, and didnot care for any other. Comparatively courageous as she had learned tobe, and free from all affectation of pretty feminine fear, Eveenacould never realise the practical immunity from ordinary danger whicha strength virtually double that I had enjoyed on Earth, and thoroughfamiliarity with the dangers of travel, of mountaineering, and of thechase, afforded me. When, therefore, I ventured among the hills alone,followed the fishermen and watched their operations, sometimes interribly rough weather, from the little open surface-boat which Icould manage myself, I preferred to give her no definite idea of myintentions. Davilo, however, protested against my exposure to a perilof which Eveena was happily as yet unaware.

  "If your intentions are never known beforehand," he said, "still yourhabit of going forth alone in places to which your steps might easilybe dogged, where you might be shot from an ambush or drowned by asudden attack from a submarine vessel, will soon be pretty generallyunderstood, if, as I fear, a regular watch is set upon your life. Atleast let me know what your intentions are before starting, and makeyour absences as irregular and sudden as possible. The less they areknown beforehand, even in your own household, the better."

  "Is it midnight still in the Council Chamber?" I asked.

  "Very nearly so. She who has told so much can tell us no more. Theclue that placed her in mental relations with the danger did notextend to its authorship. We have striven hard to find in everyconceivable direction some material key to the plot, some objectwhich, having been in contact with the persons of those we suspect,probably at the time when their plans were arranged, might serve as alink between her thoughts and theirs; but as yet unsuccessfully.Either her vision is darkened, or the connection we have sought toestablish is wanting. But you know who is your unsparing personalenemy; and, after the Sovereign himself, no man in this world is sopowerful; while the Sovereign himself is, owing to the restraints ofhis position, less active, less familiar with others, less acquaintedwith what goes on out of his own sight. Again I say we can avenge; butagainst secret murder our powers only avail to deter. If we wouldsave, it must be by the use of natural precautions."

  What he said made me desirous of some conversation with Eveena beforeI started on a meditated visit to the Palace. If I could not tell herthe whole truth, she knew something; and I thought it possible on thisoccasion so far to enlighten her as to consult with her how the secretof my intended journeys should in future be kept. But I found nochance of speaking to her until, shortly before my departure, I wascalled upon to decide one of the childish disputes which constantlydisturbed my temper and comfort. Mere fleabites they were; but fleashave often kept me awake a whole night in a Turkish caravanserai, andhalf-a-dozen mosquitos inside an Indian tent have broken up the sleepearned on a long day's march or a sharply contested battlefield. Ineed only say that I extorted at last from Eveena a clear statement ofthe trifle at issue, which flatly contradicted those of the fourparticipants in the squabble. She began to suggest a means of provingthe truth, and they broke into angry clamour. Silencing them allperemptorily, I drew Eveena into my own chamber, and, when assuredthat we were unheard, reproved her for proposing to support her ownword by evidence.

  "Do you think," I said, "that any possible proof would induce me todoubt you, or add anything to the assurance I derive from your word?"

  "But," she urged, "that cannot be just to others. They must feel itvery hard that your love for me makes you take all I say for truth.""Not my love, but my knowledge. 'Be not righteous overmuch.' Don'tforget that they _know_ the truth as well as you."

  I would hear no more, and passed to the matter I had at heart....

  Earnestly, and in a sense sincerely, as upon my second audience I hadthanked the Campta for his munificent gifts, no day passed that Iwould not thankfully have renounced the wealth he had bestowed if Icould at the same time have renounced what was, in intention andaccording to Martial ideas, the most gracious and most remarkable ofhis favours. On the present occasion I thought for a moment that suchrenunciation might have been possible.

  The Prince had, after our first interview, observed with regard toevery point of my story on which I had been carefully silent adelicacy of reserve very unusual among Martialists, and quiteunintelligible to his Court and officers. To-day the conversation inpublic turned again upon my voyage. Endo and another studiouslydirected it to the method of steering, and the intentional diminutionof speed in my descent, corresponding to its gradual increase at thecommencement of the journey--points at which they hoped to find someopening to the mystery of the motive force. The Prince relieved mefrom some embarrassment by requesting me as usual to attend him to hisprivate cabinet.

  He said:--"I have not, as you must be aware, pressed you to disclose asecret which, for some reason or other, you are evidently anxious topreserve. Of course the exclusive possession of a motive power somarvellous as that employed in your voyage is of almost incalculablepecuniary value, and it is perfectly right that you should use yourown discretion with regard to the time and the terms of itscommunication."

  "Pardon me," I interposed, "if I interrupt you, Prince, to prevent anymisconception. It is not with a view to profit that I have carefullyavoided giving any clue whatever to my secret. Tour munificence wouldrender it most ungrateful and unjust in me to haggle over the price ofany service I could render you; and I should be greedy indeed if Idesired greater wealth than you have bestowed. If I may say so withoutoffending, I earnestly wish that you would permit me, by resigningyour gifts, to retain in my own eyes the right to keep my secretwithout seeming undutiful or unthankful."

  "I have said," he replied, "that on that point you misconceive ourrespective positions. No one supposes that you are indebted to us foranything more than it was the duty of the Sovereign to give, as a markof the universal admiration and respect, to our guest from anotherworld; still less could any imagine that on such a trifle could befounded any claim to a secret so invaluable. You will offend me muchand only if you ever again speak of yourself as bound by personalobligation to me or mine. But as we are wishful to buy, so I cannotunderstand any reluctance on your part to sell your secret on your ownterms."

  "I think, Prince," I replied, "that I have already asked you what youwould think of a subject of your own, who should put such a power intothe hands of enemies as formidable to you as you would be to the racesof the Earth."

  "And _I_ think," he rejoined with a smile, "that I reminded you howlittle my judgment would matter to one possessed of such a power. Ihave gathered from your conversation how easily we might conquer aworld as far behind us in destructive powers as in generalcivilisation. But why should you object? You can make your own termsboth for yourself and for any of your race for whom you feel anespecial interest."

  "A traitor is none the less a despicable and loathsome wretch becausehis Prince cannot punish him. I am bound by no direct tie of loyaltyto any Terrestrial sovereign. I was born the subject of one of thegreatest monarchs of the Earth; I left his country at an early age,and my youth was passed in the service of less powerful rulers, to oneat least of whom I long owed the same military allegiance that bindsyour guards and officers to yourself. But that obligation also is atan end. Nevertheless, I cannot but recognise that I owe a certainfealty to the race to which I belong, a duty to right and justice.Even if I thought, which I do not think, that the Earth would bebetter governed and its inhabitants happier under your rule, I shouldhave no right to give them up to a conquest I know they would fiercelyand righteously resist. If--pardon me for saying it--you, Prince,would commit no common crime in assailing and slaughtering those whoneither have wronged nor can wrong you, one of themselves would betenfold more guilty in sharing your enterprise."

  "You shall ensure," he replied, "the good government of your own worldas you will. You sha
ll rule it with all the authority possessed by theRegents under me, and by the laws which you think best suited to racesvery different from our own. You shall be there as great and absoluteas I am here, paying only an obedience to me and my successors which,at so immense a distance, can be little more than formal."

  "Is it to acquire a merely formal power that a Prince like yourselfwould risk the lives of your own people, and sacrifice those ofmillions of another race?"

  "To tell you the truth," he replied, "I count on commanding theexpedition myself; and perhaps I care more for the adventure than forits fruits. You will not expect me to be more chary of the lives ofothers than of my own?"

  "I understand, and as a soldier could share, perhaps, a feelingnatural to a great, a capable, and an ambitious Prince. But alike assoldier and subject it is my duty to resist, not to aid, such anambition. My life is at your disposal, but even to save my life Icould not betray the lives of hundreds of millions and the future of awhole world."

  "I fail to understand you fully," he said, abandoning with a sigh ahope that had evidently been the object of long and eager day-dreams."But in no case would I try to force from you what you will not giveor sell; and if you speak sincerely--and I suppose you must do so,since I can see no motive but those you assign that could induce youto refuse my offer--I must believe in the existence of what I haveheard of now and then but deemed incredible--men who are governed bycare for other things than their own interests, who believe in rightand wrong, and would rather suffer injustice than commit it."

  "You may be sure, Prince," I replied, perhaps imprudently, "that thereare such men in your own world, though they are perhaps among thosewho are least known and least likely to be seen at your Court."

  "If you know them," he said, "you will render me no little service inbringing them to my knowledge."

  "It is possible," I ventured to observe, "that their distinguishingexcellences are connected with other distinctions which might renderit a disservice to them to indicate their peculiar character, I willnot say to yourself, but to those around you."

  "I hardly understand you," he rejoined. "Take, however, my assurancethat nothing you say here shall, without your own consent, be usedelsewhere. It is no light gratification, no trifling advantage to me,to find one man who has neither fear nor interest that can induce himto lie to me; to whom I can speak, not as sovereign to subject, but asman to man, and of whose private conversation my courtiers andofficials are not yet suspicious or jealous. You shall never repentany confidence you give to me."

  My interest in and respect for the strange character so manifestlysuited for, so intensely weary of, the grandest position that mancould fill, increased with each successive interview. I never enviedthat greatness which seems to most men so enviable. The servitude of aconstitutional King, so often a puppet in the hands of the worst andmeanest of men--those who prostitute their powers as rulers of a Stateto their interests as chiefs of a faction--must seem pitiable to anyrational manhood. But even the autocracy of the Sultan or the Czarseems ill to compensate the utter isolation of the throne; the lonelygrandeur of one who can hardly have a friend, since he can never havean equal, among those around him. I do not wonder that a tinge ofmelancholo-mania is so often perceptible in the chiefs of that greatHouse whose Oriental absolutism is only "tempered by assassination."But an Earthly sovereign may now and then meet his fellow-sovereigns,whether as friends or foes, on terms of frank hatred or loyalopenness. His domestic relations, though never secure and simple asthose of other men, may relieve him at times from the oppressive senseof his sublime solitude; and to his wife, at any rate, he may for afew minutes or hours be the husband and not the king. But the absoluteRuler of this lesser world had neither equal friends nor open foes,neither wife nor child. How natural then his weariness of his ownlife; how inevitable his impatient scorn of those to whom that lifewas devoted! A despot not even accountable to God--a Prince who, tillhe conversed with me, never knew that the universe contained his equalor his like--it spoke much, both for the natural strength andsoundness of his intellect and for the excellence of his education,that he was so sane a man, so earnest, active, and just a ruler. Hisreign was signalised by a better police, a more even administration ofjustice, a greater efficiency, judgment, and energy in the executionof great works of public utility, than his realm had known for athousand years; and his duty was done as diligently andconscientiously as if he had known that conscience was the voice of asupreme Sovereign, and duty the law of an unerring and unescapableLawgiver. Alone among a race of utterly egotistical cowards, he hadthe courage of a soldier, and the principles, or at least theinstincts, worthy of a Child of the Star. With him alone could I havefelt a moment's security from savage attempts to extort by terror orby torture the secret I refused to sell; and I believe that hisgenerous abstinence from such an attempt was as exasperating as it wasincomprehensible to his advisers, and chiefly contributed to involvehim in the vengeance which baffled greed and humbled personal pridehad leagued to wreak upon myself, as on those with whose welfare andsafety my own were inextricably intertwined. It was a fortunate, ifnot a providential, combination of circumstances that compelled theenemies of the Star, primarily on my account, to interweave with theirscheme of murderous persecution and private revenge an equallyruthless and atrocious treason against the throne and person of theirMonarch.

  My audience had detained me longer than I had expected, and theevening mist had fairly closed in before I returned. Entering, not asusual through the grounds and the peristyle, but by the vestibule andmy own chamber, and hidden by my half-open window, I overheard anexceedingly characteristic discussion on the incident of the morning.

  "Serve her right!" Leenoo was saying. "That she should for once getthe worst of it, and be disbelieved to sharpen the sting!"

  "How do you know?" asked Enva. "I don't feel so sure we have heard thelast of it."

  "Eveena did not seem to have liked her half-hour," answered Leenoospitefully. "Besides, if he did not disbelieve her story, he wouldhave let her prove it."

  "Is that your reliance?" broke in Eunane. "Then you are swinging on arotten branch. I would not believe my ears if, for all that all of uscould invent against her, I heard him so much as ask Eveena, 'Are youspeaking the truth?'"

  "It is very uneven measure," muttered Enva.

  "Uneven!" cried Eunane. "Now, I think _I_ have the best right to bejealous of her place; and it does sting me that, when he takes me forhis companion out of doors, or makes most of me at home, it is soplain that he is taking trouble, as if he grudged a soft word or akiss to another as something stolen from her. But he deals evenly,after all. If he were less tender of her we should have to draw ourzones tighter. But he won't give us the chance to say, 'Teach the_amba_ with stick and the _esve_ with sugar.'"

  "I do say it. She is never snubbed or silenced; and if she has hadworse than what he calls 'advice' to-day, I believe it is the firsttime. She has never 'had cause to wear the veil before the household'[to hide blushes or tears], or found that his 'lips can give sharpersting than their kiss can heal,' like the rest of us."

  "What for? If he wished to find her in fault he would have to watchher dreams. Do you expect him to be harder to her than to us? He don't'look for stains with a microscope.' None of us can say that he'drinks tears for taste.' None of us ever 'smarted because the sunscorched _him_.' Would you have him 'tie her hands for being white'?"[punish her for perfection].

  "She is never at fault because he never believes us against her,"returned Leenoo.

  "How often would he have been right? I saw nothing of to-day'squarrel, but I know beforehand where the truth lay. I tell you this:he hates the sandal more than the sin, but, strange as it seems, hehates a falsehood worse still; and a falsehood against Eveena--If youwant to feel 'how the spear-grass cuts when the sheath bursts,' lethim find you out in an experiment like this! You congratulateyourself, Leenoo, that you have got her into trouble. _Elnerve_ thatyou are!--if you have, you had better have poiso
ned his cup before hiseyes. For every tear he sees her shed he will reckon with us at twelveyears' usury."

  "_You_ have made her shed some," retorted Enva.

  "Yes," said Eunane, "and if he knew it, I should like half a year'spenance in the black sash" [as the black sheep or scapegoat of herNursery] "better than my next half-hour alone with him. When I wassilly enough to tie the veil over her mouth" [take the lead in sendingher to Coventry] "the day after we came here, I expected to pay forit, and thought the fruit worth the scratches. But when he came inthat evening, nodded and spoke kindly to us, but with his eyes seekingfor her; when he saw her at last sitting yonder with her head down, Isaw how his face darkened at the very idea that she was vexed, and Ithought the flash was in the cloud. When she sprang up as he calledher, and forced a smile before he looked into her face, I wished I hadbeen as ugly as Minn oo, that I might have belonged to the miseries,worst-tempered man living, rather than have so provoked the giant."

  "But what did he do?"

  "Well that he don't hear you!" returned Eunane. "But I cananswer;--nothing. I shivered like a _leveloo_ in the wind when he cameinto my room, but I heard nothing about Eveena. I told Eive so nextday--you remember Eive would have no part with us? 'And you werecalled the cleverest girl in your Nursery!' she said; 'you have justtied your own hands and given your sandal into Eveena's. Whenever shetells him, you will drink the cup she chooses to mix for you, and verysalt you will find it.'"

  "Crach!" (tush or stuff), said Eirale contemptuously. "We have 'filledher robe with pins' for half a year since then, and she has never beenable to make him count them."

  "Able!" returned Eunane sharply, "do you know no better? Well, I choseto fancy she was holding this over me to keep me in her power. One dayshe spoke--choosing her words so carefully--to warn me how I was sureto anger Clasfempta" (the master of the household) "by pushing mypranks so often to the verge of safety and no farther. I answered herwith a taunt, and, of course, that evening I was more perverse thanever, till even he could stand it no longer. When he quoted--

  "'More lightly treat whom haste or heat to headlong trespass urge; The heaviest sandals fit the feet that ever tread the verge'--

  "I was well frightened. I saw that the bough had broken short of theend, and that for once Clasfempta could mean to hurt. But Eveena kepthim awhile, and when he came to me, she had persuaded him that I wasonly mischievous, not malicious, teasing rather than trespassing. Buthis last words showed that he was not so sure of that. 'I have treatedyou this time as a child whose petulance is half play; but if youwould not have your teasing returned with interest, keep it clipped;and--keep it for _me_.' I have often tormented her since then, but Icould not for shame help you to spite her."

  "Crach!" said Enva. "Eveena might think it wise to make friends withyou; but would she bear to be slighted and persecuted a whole summerif she could help herself? You know that--

  "Man's control in woman's hand Sorest tries the household band. Closer favourite's kisses cling, Favourite's fingers sharper sting.'"

  "Very likely," replied Eunane. "I cannot understand any more than youcan why Eveena screens instead of punishing us; why she endures what aword to him would put down under her sandal; but she does. Does shecast no shadow because it never darkens his presence to us? And afterall, her mind is not a deeper darkness to me than his. He enjoys lifeas no man here does; but what he enjoys most is a good chance oflosing it; while those who find it so tedious guard it likewatch-dragons. When the number of accidents made it difficult to fillup the Southern hunt at any price, the Campta's refusal to let him goso vexed him that Eveena was half afraid to show her sense of relief.You would think he liked pain--the scars of the _kargynda_ are not hisonly or his deepest ones--if he did not catch at every excuse to spareit. And, again, why does he speak to Eveena as to the Campta, and tous as to children--'child' is his softest word for us? Then, he ispatient where you expect no mercy, and severe where others wouldlaugh. When Enva let the electric stove overheat the water, so that hewas scalded horribly in his bath, we all counted that he would atleast have paid her back the pain twice over. But as soon as Eveenaand Eive had arranged the bandages, he sent for her. We could scarcelybring you to him, Enva; but he put out the only hand he could move tostroke your hair as he does Eive's, and spoke for once with realtenderness, as if you were the person to be pitied! Any one else wouldhave laughed heartily at the figure her _esve_ made with half her tailpulled out. But not all Eveena's pleading could obtain pardon for me."

  "That was caprice, not even dealing," said Leenoo. "You were not halfso bad as Enva."

  "He made me own that I was," replied Eunane. "It never occurred to himto suppose or say that she did it on purpose. But I was cruel onpurpose to the bird, if I were not spiteful to its mistress. 'Don'tyou feel,' he said, 'that intentional cruelty is what no ruler,whether of a household or of a kingdom, has a right to pass over? Ifnot, you can hardly be fit for a charge that gives animals into yourpower.' I never liked him half so well; and I am sure I deserved aseverer lesson. Since then, I cannot help liking them both; though it_is_ mortifying to feel that one is nothing before her."

  "It is intolerable," said Enva bitterly; "I detest her."

  "Is it her fault?" asked Eunane with some warmth. "They are so likeeach other and so unlike us, that I could fancy she came from his ownworld. I went to her next day in her own room."

  "Ay," interjected Leenoo with childish spite, "'kiss the foot and'scape the sandal.'"

  "Think so," returned Eunane quietly, "if you like. I thought I owedher some amends. Well, she had her bird in her lap, and I think shewas crying over it. But as soon as she saw me she put it out of sight.I began to tell her how sorry I was about it, but she would not let mego on. She kissed me as no one ever kissed me since my school friendErnie died three years ago; and she cried more over the trouble I hadbrought on myself than over her pet. And since then," Eunane went onwith a softened voice, "she has showed me how pretty its ways are, howclever it is, how fond of her, and she tries to make it friends withme.... Sometimes I don't wonder she is so much to him and he to her.She was brought up in the home where she was born. Her father is oneof those strange people; and I fancy there is something between herand Clasfempta more than...."

  I could not let this go on; and stepping back from the window as if Ihad but just returned, I called Eunane by name. She came at once, alittle surprised at the summons, but suspecting nothing. But the firstsight of my face startled her; and when, on the impulse of the moment,I took her hands and looked straight into her eyes, her quickintelligence perceived at once that I had heard at least part of theconversation.

  "Ah," she said, flushing and hanging her head, "I am caught now,but"--in a tone half of relief--"I deserve it, and I won't pretend tothink that you are angry only because Eveena is your favourite. Youwould not allow any of us to be spited if you could help it, and it ismuch worse to have spited her."

  I led her by the hand across the peristyle into her own chamber, andwhen the window closed behind us, drew her to my side.

  "So you would rather belong to the worst master of your own race thanto me?"

  "Not now," she answered. "That was my first thought when I saw how youfelt for Eveena, and knew how angry you would be when you found howwe--I mean how I--had used her, and I remembered how terribly strongyou were. I know you better now. It is for women to strike with fivefingers" (in unmeasured passion); "only, don't tell Eveena. Besides,"she murmured, colouring, with drooping eyelids, "I had rather bebeaten by you than caressed by another."

  "Eunane, child, you might well say you don't understand me. I couldnot have listened to your talk if I had meant to use it against you;and with _you_ I have no cause to be displeased. Nay" (as she lookedup in surprise), "I know you have not used Eveena kindly, but I heardfrom yourself that you had repented. That she, who could never becoaxed or compelled to say what made her unhappy, or even to own thatI had guessed it truly, has fully forgiven you, you don't need to betol
d."

  "Indeed, I don't understand," the girl sobbed. "Eveena is always sostrangely soft and gentle--she would rather suffer without reason thanlet us suffer who deserve it. But just because she is so kind, youmust feel the more bitterly for her. Besides," she went on, "I was sojealous--as if you could compare me with her--even after I had felther kindness. No! you cannot forgive _for her_, and you ought not."

  "Child," I answered, sadly enough, for my conscience was as ill atease as hers, with deeper cause, "I don't tell you that your jealousywas not foolish and your petulance culpable; but I do say that neitherEveena nor I have the heart--perhaps I have not even the right--toblame you. It is true that I love Eveena as I can love no other inthis world or my own. How well she deserves that love none but I canknow. So loving her, I would not willingly have brought any otherwoman into a relation which could make her dependent upon or desirousof such love as I cannot give. You know how this relation to you andthe others was forced upon me. When I accepted it, I thought I couldgive you as much affection as you would find elsewhere. How far andwhy I wronged Eveena is between her and myself. I did not think that Icould be wronging you."

  Very little of this was intelligible to Eunane. She felt a tendernessshe had never before received; but she could not understand my doubt,and she replied only to my last words.

  "Wrong us! How could you? Did we ask whether you had another wife, orwho would be your favourite? Did you promise to like us, or even to bekind to us? You might have neglected us altogether, made one girl yoursole companion, kept all indulgences, all favours, for her; and howwould you have wronged us? If you had turned on us when she vexed you,humbled us to gratify her caprice, ill-used us to vent your temper,other men would have done the same. Who else would have treated us asyou have done? Who would have been careful to give each of us hershare in every pleasure, her turn in every holiday, her employment athome, her place in your company abroad? Who would have inquired intothe truth of our complaints and the merits of our quarrels; would havemade so many excuses for our faults, given us so many patientwarnings?... Wronged us! There may be some of us who don't like you;there is not one who could bear to be sent away, not one who wouldexchange this house for the palace of the campta though you pronouncehim kingly in nature as in power."

  She spoke as she believed, if she spoke in error. "If so, my child,why have you all been so bitter against Eveena? Why have you yourselfbeen jealous of one who, as you admit, has been a favourite only in alove you did not expect?"

  "But we saw it, and we envied her so much love, so much respect," shereplied frankly. "And for myself,"--she coloured, faltered, and wassilent. "For yourself, my child?"

  "I was a vain fool," she broke out impetuously. "They told me that Iwas beautiful, and clever, and companionable. I fancied I should beyour favourite, and hold the first place; and when I saw her, I wouldnot see her grace and gentleness, or observe her soft sweet voice, andthe charms that put my figure and complexion to shame, and the quietsense and truth that were worth twelvefold my quickness, my memory,and my handiness. I was disappointed and mortified that she should bepreferred. Oh, how you must hate me, Clasfempta; for I hate myselfwhile I tell you what I have been!"

  According to European doctrine, my fealty to Eveena must then havebeen in peril. And yet, warmly as I felt for Eunane, the element inher passionate confession that touched me most was her recognition ofEveena's superiority; and as I soothed and comforted the half-childishpenitent, I thought how much it would please Eveena that I had at lastcome to an understanding with the companion she avowedly liked thebest.

  "But, Eunane," I said at last, "do you remember what you were sayingwhen I called you--called you on purpose to stop you? You said thatthere was something between Eveena and myself more than---more thanwhat? What did you mean? Speak frankly, child; I know that this timeyou were not going to scald me on purpose."

  "I don't know quite what I meant," she replied simply. "But the firsttime you took me out, I heard the superintendent say some strangethings; and then he checked himself when he found your companion wasnot Eveena. Then Eive--I mean--you use expressions sometimes intalking to Eveena that we never heard before. I think there is somesecret between you."

  "And if there be, Eunane, were _you_ going to betray it--to set Envaand Leenoo on to find it out?"

  "I did not think," she said. "I never do think before I get intotrouble. I don't say, forgive me this time; but I _will_ hold mytongue for the future."

  By this time our evening meal was ready. As I led Eunane to her place,Eveena looked up with some little surprise. It was rarely that,especially on returning from absence, I had sought any other companythan hers. But there was no tinge of jealousy or doubt in her look. Onthe contrary, as, with her entire comprehension of every expression ofmy face, and her quickness to read the looks of others, she saw inboth countenances that we were on better terms than ever before, herown brightened at the thought. As I placed myself beside her, shestole her hand unobserved into mine, and pressed it as she whispered--

  "You have found her out at last. She is half a child as yet; but shehas a heart--and perhaps the only one among them."

  "The four," as I called them, looked up as we approached with eagermalice:--bitterly disappointed, when they saw that Eunane had wonsomething more than pardon. Whatever penance they had dreaded, theirown escape ill compensated the loss of their expected pleasure in thepain and humiliation of a finer nature. Eunane's look, timidlyappealing to her to ratify our full reconciliation, answered byEveena's smile of tender, sisterly sympathy, enhanced and completedtheir discomfiture.