CHAPTER XVIII - A PRINCE'S PRESENT.
"This," said my escort, as we dismounted, "is the residence assignedto you by the Campta. Besides the grounds here enclosed, he hasawarded you, by a deed which will presently be placed in your hands,an estate of some ten _stoltau_, which you can inspect at yourleisure, and which will afford you a revenue as large as is enjoyed byany save by the twelve Regents. He has endeavoured to add to thistestimony of his regard by rendering your household as complete aswealth and forethought could make it. What may be wanting to your owntastes and habits you will find no difficulty in adding."
We now entered that first and principal chamber of the mansion whereinit is customary to receive all visitors and transact all business. Thehall was one of unusual size and magnificence. Here, at a table notfar from the entrance, stood another official, not wearing the uniformof the Court, with several documents in his hand. As he turned tosalute me, his face wore an expression of annoyance and discomfiturewhich not a little surprised me, till, by following his sidelong,uncomfortable glances, I perceived a veiled feminine figure, whichcould be no other than Eveena's. Misreading my surprise, the officialsaid--
"It is no fault of mine, and I have not spoken except to remonstrate,as far as might be allowed, against so unusual a proceeding."
He must have been astonished and annoyed indeed to take such notice ofa stranger's wife; and, above all, to take upon himself to comment onher conduct for good or ill. I thought it best to make no reply, andsimply saluted him in form as I received the first paper handed to me,to which, by the absence of any blank space, I perceived that mysignature was not required. This was indeed the document whichbestowed on me the house and estate presented by the Sovereign. Thenext paper handed to me appeared to resemble the marriage-contract Ihad already signed, save that but one blank was left therein. Unableto decipher it, I was about to ask the official to read it aloud, whenEveena, who had stolen up to me unperceived, caught my arm and drew mea little way aside, indifferent to the wondering glances of theofficials; who had probably never seen a woman venture uncalled intothe public apartments of her husband's house, still less interpose inany matter of business, and no doubt thought that she was takingoutrageous advantage of my ignorance and inexperience.
"I will scold you presently, child," I said quickly and low. "What isit?"
"Sign at once," she whispered, "and ask no questions. Deal with me asyou will afterwards. You must take what is given you now, withoutcomment or objection, simply expressing your thanks."
"_Must_! Eveena?"
"It is not safe to refuse or slight gifts from such a quarter," sheanswered, in the same low tone. "Trust me so far; please do what Ientreat of you now. I must bear your displeasure if I fail to satisfyyou when we are alone."
Her manner was so agitated and so anxious that it recalled to me atonce the advice of Esmo upon the same point, though the fears whichhad prompted so strange an intervention were wholly incomprehensibleto me. I knew her, however, by this time too well to refuse the trustshe now for the first time claimed, and taking the documents one byone as if I had perfectly understood them, I wrote my name in thespace left blank for it, and allowed the official to stamp the slipswithout a word. I then expressed briefly but earnestly my thanks bothto the Autocrat and to the officials who had been the agents of hiskindness. They retired, and I looked round for Eveena; but as soon asshe saw that I was about to comply with her request, she had quittedthe room. Alone in my own house, knowing nothing of its geography,having no notion how to summon the brute domestics--if, indeed, thedwelling were furnished with those useful creatures, without whom aMartial household would be signally incomplete--I could only look forthe spring that opened the principal door. This should lead into thegallery which, as I judged, must divide the hall and the frontapartments from those looking into the peristyle. Having found andpressed this spring, the door opened on a gallery longer, wider, andmore elaborately ornamented than that of the only Martial mansionsinto which I had been hitherto admitted. Looking round in no littleperplexity, I observed a niche in which stood a statue of whiterelieved by a scarlet background; and beside this statue, crouchingand half hidden, a slight pink object, looking at first like a bundleof drapery, but which in a moment sprang up, and, catching my hand,made me aware that Eveena had been waiting for me.
"I beg you," she said with an earnestness I could not understand, "Ibeg you to come _this_ way," leading me to the right, for I had turnedinstinctively to the left in entering the gallery, perhaps because myroom in Esmo's house had lain in that direction. Reaching the end ofthe gallery, she turned into one of the inner apartments; and as thedoor closed behind us, I felt that she was sinking to the ground, asif the agitation she had manifested in the hall, controlled till herobject was accomplished, had now overpowered her. I caught and carriedher to the usual pile of cushions in the corner. The room, accordingto universal custom in Martial houses after sunset, was brilliantlylighted by the electric lamp in the peristyle, and throwing back herveil, I saw that she was pale to ghastliness and almost fainting. Inmy ignorance of my own house, I could call for no help, and employ noother restoratives than fond words and caresses. Under this treatment,nevertheless, she recovered perhaps as quickly as under any which thefaculty might have prescribed. She was, still, however, much moredistressed than mere consciousness of the grave solecism she hadcommitted could explain. But I had no other clue to her trouble, andcould only hope that in repudiating this she would explain its realcause.
"Come, bambina!" I expostulated, "we understand one another too wellby this time for you to wrong me by all this alarm. I know that youwould not have broken through the customs of your people without goodreason; and you know that, even if your reason were not sufficient, Ishould not be hard upon the error."
"I am sure you would not," she said. "But this time you have toconsider others, and you cannot let it be supposed that you do notknow a wife's duty, or will allow your authority to be set at naughtin your own household."
"What matter? Do you suppose I listen in the roads?" [care forgossip], I rejoined. "Household rule is a matter of the veil, and noone--not even your autocratic Prince--will venture to lift it."
"You have not lifted it yourself yet," she answered. "You willunderstand me, when you have looked at the slips you were about tomake them read aloud, had I not interrupted you."
"Bead them yourself," I said, handing to her the papers I still held,and which, after her interposition, I had not attempted to decipher.She took them, but with a visible shudder of reluctance--not strongerthan came over me before she had read three lines aloud. Had I knowntheir purport, I doubt whether even Eveena's persuasion and theAutocrat's power together could have induced me to sign them. Theywere in very truth contracts of marriage--if marriage it can becalled. The Sovereign had done me the unusual, but not whollyunprecedented, favour of selecting half a dozen of the fairest maidensof those waiting their fate in the Nurseries of his empire; hadproffered on my behoof terms which satisfied their ambition, gratifiedtheir vanity, and would have induced them to accept any suitor sorecommended, without the insignificant formality of a personalcourtship. It had seemed to him only a gracious attention to completemy household; and he had furnished me with a bevy of wives, as Ipresently found he had selected a complete set of the most intelligent_amlau, carvee,_ and _tyree_ which he could procure. Without eitherthe one or the other, the dwelling he had given me would have seemedequally empty or incomplete.
This mark of royal favour astounded and dismayed me more than Eveenaherself. If she had entertained the wish, she would hardly haveacknowledged to herself the hope, that she might remain permanentlythe sole partner of my home. But so sudden, speedy, and wholesale anintrusion thereon she certainly had not expected. Even in Mars, afirst bride generally enjoys for some time a monopoly of her husband'ssociety, if she cannot be said to enchain his affection. It was hard,indeed, before the thirtieth day after her marriage, to find herselfbut one in a numerous family--the harder t
hat our union had from thefirst been close, intimate, unrestrainedly confidential, as it canhardly be where neither expects that the tie can remain exclusive; andbecause she had learned to realise and rest upon such love as belongsto a life in which woman, never affecting the independence of coequalpartnership, has never yet sunk by reaction into a mere slave and toy.It was hard, cruelly hard, on one who had given in the first hour ofmarriage, and never failed to give, a love whose devotion had nolimit, no reserve or qualification; a submission that was lessself-sacrifice or self-suppression than the absolute surrender ofself--of will, feeling, and self-interest--to the judgment andpleasure of him she loved: hard on her who had neither thought norcare for herself as apart from me.
When I understood to what I had actually committed myself, I snatchedthe papers from her, and might have torn them to pieces but for thegentle restraining hand she laid upon mine.
"You cannot help it," she said, the tears falling from her eyes, butwith a self-command of which I could not have supposed her capable."It seems hard on me; but it is better so. It is not that you are notcontent with me, not that you love me less. I can bear it better whenit comes from a stranger, and is forced upon you without, and even, Ithink, against your will."
The pressure of the arm that clasped her waist, and the hand that heldher own, was a sufficient answer to any doubt that might be implied inher last words; and, lifting her eyes to mine, she said--
"I shall always remember this. I shall always think that you weresorry not to have at least a little while longer alone with me. It isselfish to feel glad that you are pained; but your sympathy, yoursharing my own feeling, comforts me as I never could have beencomforted when, as must have happened sooner or later, you had foundfor yourself another companion."
"Child, do you mean to say there is 'no portal to this passage;' andthat, however much against my will, I am bound to women I have neverseen, and never wish to see?"
"You have signed," replied Eveena gently. "The contracts are stamped,and are in the official's hands; and you could not attempt to breakthem without giving mortal offence to the Prince, who has intended youa signal favour. Besides, these girls themselves have done no wrong,and deserve no affront or unkindness from you."
I was silent for some minutes; at first simply astounded at the calmmagnanimity which was mingled with her perfect simplicity, then,pondering the possibilities of the situation--
"Can we not escape?" I said at last, rather to myself than to her.
"Escape!" she repeated with surprise. "And from what? The favour shownyou by our Sovereign, the wealth he has bestowed, the personalinterest he has taken in perfecting every detail of one of the mostsplendid homes ever given save to a prince--every incident of yourposition--make you the most envied man in this world; and you wouldescape from them?"
Gazing for a few moments in my face, she added--
"These maidens were chosen as the loveliest in all the Nurseries oftwo continents; every one of them far more beautiful than I can be,even in your eyes. Pray do not, for my sake, be unkind to them or tryto dislike them. What is it you would escape?"
"Being false to you," I answered, "if nothing else."
"False!" she echoed, in unaffected wonder. "What did you promise me?"
Again I was silenced by the loyal simplicity with which she followedout ideas so strange to me that their consequences, however logical, Icould never anticipate; and could hardly admit to be sound, even whenso directly and distinctly deduced as now from the intolerableconsistency of the premises.
"But," I answered at last, "how much did _you_ promise, Eveena? andhow much more have you given?"
"Nothing," she replied, "that I did not owe. You won your right to allthe love I could give before you asked for it, and since."
"We 'drive along opposite lines,' Madonna; but we would both give andrisk much to avoid what is before us. Let me ask your father whetherit be not yet possible to return to my vessel, and leave a world souncongenial to both of us."
"You cannot!" she answered. "Try to escape--you insult the Prince; youput yourself and me, for whom you fear more, in the power of amalignant enemy. You cannot guide a balloon or a vessel, if you couldget possession of one; and within a few hours after your departure wasknown, every road and every port would be closed to you."
"Can I not send to your father?" I said.
"Probably," she replied. "I think we shall find a telegraph in youroffice, if you will allow me to enter there, now there is no one tosee; and it must be morning in Ecasfe."
Familiar with the construction and arrangement of a Martial house,Eveena immediately crossed the gallery to what she called theoffice--the front room on the right, where the head of the housecarries on his work or study. Here, above a desk attached to the wall,was one of those instruments whose manipulation was simple enough fora novice like myself.
"But," I said, "I cannot write your stylic characters; and if I usedthe phonic letters, a message from me would be very likely to excitethe curiosity of officials who would care about no other."
"May I," she suggested, "write your message for you, and put yourpurport in words that will be understood by my father alone?"
"Do," I rejoined, "but do it in my name, and I will sign it."
Under her direction, I took the stylus or pencil and the slip of_tafroo_ she offered me, and wrote my name at the head. Aftereliciting the exact purport of the message I desired to send, andmeditating for some moments, she wrote and read out to me wordsliterally translated as follows:--
"The rich aviary my flower-bird thought over full. I would breathehome [air]. Health-speak." The sense of which, as I could alreadyunderstand, was--
"A splendid mansion has been given us, but my flower-bird has found ittoo full. I wish for my native air. Prescribe."
The brevity of the message was very characteristic of the language.Equally characteristic of the stylography was the fact that the wordsoccupied about an inch beyond the address. Following her pencil as shepointed to the ciphers, I said--
"Is not _asny care_ a false concord? And why have you used the pasttense?"
This ill-timed pedantry, applying to Martial grammar the rules of thatwith which my boyhood had been painfully familiarised, provoked, amidall our trouble, Eveena's low silver-toned laugh.
"I meant it," she answered. "My father will look at his pupil'swriting with both eyes."
"Well, you are out of reach even of the leveloo."
She laughed again.
"Asnyca-re," she said; the changed accentuation turning the formerwords into the well-remembered name of my landing-place, with theinterrogative syllable annexed.
This message despatched, we could only await the reply. Nestling amongthe cushions at my knee, her head resting on my breast, Eveena said--
"And now, forgive my presumption in counselling you, and my remindingyou of what is painful to both. But what to us is as the course of theclock, is strange as the stars to you. You must see--_them_, and mustorder all household arrangements; and" (glancing at a dial fixed inthe wall) "the black is driving down the green."
"So much the better," I said. "I shall have less time to speak tothem, and less chance of speaking or looking my mind. And as toarrangements, those, of course, you must make."
"I! forgive me," she answered, "that is impossible. It is for you toassign to each of us her part in the household, her chamber, her rankand duties. You forget that I hold exactly the same position with theyoungest among them, and cannot presume even to suggest, much less todirect."
I was silent, and after a pause she went on--
"It is not for me to advise you; but"--
"Speak your thought, now and always, Eveena. Even if I did not standin so much need of your guidance in a new world, I never yet refusedto hear counsel; and it is a wife's right to offer it."
"Is it? We are not so taught," she answered. "I am afraid you haverougher ground to steer over than you are aware. Alone with you, Ihope I should have done nay best, remembering
the lesson of theleveloo, never to give you the pain of teaching a different one. Butwe shall no longer be alone; and you cannot hope to manage seven asyou might manage one. Moreover, these girls have neither had thatfirst experience of your nature which made that lesson so impressiveto me, nor the kindly and gentle training, under a mother's care and afather's mild authority, that I had enjoyed. They would not understandthe control that is not enforced. They will obey when they must; andwill feel that they must obey when they cannot deceive, and dare notrebel. Do not think hardly of them for this. They have known no lifebut that of the strict clockwork routine of a great Nursery, where nopersonal affection and no rule but that of force is possible."
"I understand, Madonna. Your Prince's gift puts a man in charge ofyoung ladies, hitherto brought up among women only, and, of course,petty, petulant, frivolous, as women left to themselves ever are! Iwish you could see the ridiculous side of the matter which occurs tome, as I see the painful aspect which alone is plain to you. I canscarcely help laughing at the chance which has assigned to me thedaily personal management of half-a-dozen school-girls; andschool-girls who must also be wives! I don't think you need fear thatI shall deal with them as with you: as a man of sense and feeling mustdeal with a woman whose own instincts, affection, and judgment aresufficient for her guidance. I never saw much of girls or children. Iremember no home but the Western school and the Oriental camp. Inever, as soldier or envoy, was acquainted with other men's homes.While still beardless, I have ruled bearded soldiers by a disciplinewhose sanctions were the death-shot and the bastinado; and when I leftthe camp and court, it was for colleges where a beardless face isnever seen. I must look to you to teach me how discipline may besoftened to suit feminine softness, and what milder sanction mayreplace the noose and the stick of the _ferash_" (Persianexecutioner).
"I cannot believe," Eveena answered, taking me, as usual, to theletter, "that you will ever draw the zone too tight. We say that'anarchy is the worst tyranny.' Laxity which leaves us to quarrel andtorment each other, tenderness which encourages disorder anddisobedience till they must be put down perforce, is ultimateunkindness. I will not tell you that such indulgence will give youendless trouble, win you neither love nor respect, and probably teachits objects to laugh at you under the veil. You will care more forthis--that you would find yourself forced at last to change 'velvethand for leathern band.' Believe me, my--our comfort and happinessmust depend on your grasping the helm at once and firmly; ruling us,and ruling with a strong hand. Otherwise your home will resemble themost miserable of all scenes of discomfort--an ungoverned school; andthe most severe and arbitrary household rule is better by far thanthat. And--forgive me once more--but do not speak as if you would dealone measure with the left hand and another with the right. Surely youdo not so misunderstand me as to think I counselled you to treatmyself differently from others? 'Just rule only can be gentle.' If youshow favouritism at first, you will find yourself driven step by stepto do what you will feel to be cruel; what will pain yourself perhapsmore than any one else. You may make envy and dislike bite (hold)their tongues, but you cannot prevent their stinging under the veil.Therefore, once more, you cannot let my interference pass as if nonebut you knew of it."
"Madonna, if I _am_ to rule such a household, I will rule asabsolutely as your autocratic Prince. I will tolerate no criticism andno questions."
"You surely forget," she urged, "that they know my offence, and do notknow--must not know--what in your judgment excuses it. Let them oncelearn that it is possible so to force the springs [bolts] without asting, it will take a salt-fountain [of tears] to blot the lesson fromtheir memory."
"What would you have, Eveena? Am I to deal unjustly that I may seemjust? That course steers straight to disaster. And, had you been infault, could, I humble you in other eyes?"
"If I feel hurt by any mark of your displeasure, or humbled that itshould be known to my equals in your own household," she replied, "itis time I were deprived of the privileges that have rendered me sooverweening."
My answer was intercepted by the sound of an electric bell orminiature gong, and a slip of tafroo fell upon the desk. The firstwords were in that vocal character which I had mastered, and came fromEsmo.
"Hysterical folly," he had said. "Mountain air might be fatal; andclear nights are dangerously cold for more than yourselves."
"What does he mean?" I asked, as I read out a formula more studiouslyoccult than those of the Pharmacopoeia.
"That I am unpardonably silly, and that you must not dream of goingback to your vessel. The last words, I suppose, warn you how carefullyin such a household you need to guard the secrets of the Starlight."
"Well, and what is this in the stylic writing?"
Eveena glanced over it and coloured painfully, the tears gathering inher eyes.
"That," she said, pointing to the first cipher, "is my mother'ssignature."
"Then," I said, "it is meant for you, not for me."
"Nay," she answered. "Do you think I could take advantage of your notknowing the character?"--and she read words quite as incomprehensibleto me as the writing itself.
"Can a star mislead the blind? I should veil myself in crimson if Ihave trained a bird to snatch sugar from full hands. Must even yourwomanhood reverse the clasps of your childhood?"
"It chimes midnight twice," I said--a Martial phrase meaning, 'I am asmuch in the dark as ever.' "Do not translate it, carissima. I can readin your face that it is unjust--reproachful where you deserve noreproach."
"Nay, when you so wrong my mother I must tell you exactly what shemeans:--'Can a child of the Star take advantage of one who relies onher to explain the customs of a world unknown to him? I blush to thinkthat my child can abuse the tenderness of one who is too eager toindulge her fancies.'
"You see she is quite right. You do trust me so absolutely, you are sostrangely over-kind to me, it is shameful I should vex you by frettingbecause you are forced to do what you might well have done at your ownpleasure."
"My own, I was more than vexed; chiefly perhaps for your sake, but notby you. Where any other woman would have stung the sore by sendingfresh sparks along the wire, you thought only to spare me the pain ofseeing you pained. But what do the last words mean? No"--for I saw thecolour deepen on her half-averted face--"better leave unread what weknow to be written in error."
But the less agreeable a supposed duty, the more resolute was Eveenato fulfil it.
"They were meant to recall a saying familiar in every school andhousehold," she said:--
"'Sandal loosed and well-clasped zone-- Childhood spares the woman grown. Change the clasps, and woman yet Pays with interest childhood's debt.'"
"This"--tightening and relaxing the clasp of her zone--"is the symbolof stricter or more indulgent household rule." Then bending so as toavert her face, she unclasped her embroidered sandal and gave it intomy hand;--"and this is what, I suppose, you would call its sanction."
"There is more to be said for the sandal than I supposed, bambina, ifit have helped to make you what you are. But you may tell Zulve thatits work and hers are done."
Kneeling before her, I kissed, with more studied reverence than thesacred stone of the Caaba, the tiny foot on which I replaced itscovering.
"Baby as she thinks and I call you, Eveena, you are fast unteaching methe lesson which, before you were born and ever since, the women ofthe Earth have done their utmost to impress indelibly upon mymind--the lesson that woman is but a less lovable, more petulant, moredeeply and incurably spoilt child. Your mother's reproach is an exactinversion of the truth. No one could have acted with more utterunselfishness, more devoted kindness, more exquisite delicacy than youhave shown in this miserable matter. I could not have believed thateven you could have put aside your own feelings so completely, couldhave recognised so promptly that I was not in fault, have thought soexclusively of what was best and safe for me in the first place, andnext of what was kind and just and generous to your rivals. I neverthought suc
h reasonableness and justice possible to feminine nature;and if I cannot love you more dearly, you have taught me how deeply toadmire and honour you. I accept the situation, since you will have itso; be as just and considerate henceforward as you have been to-night,and trust me that it shall bring no shadow between us--shall nevermake you less to me than you are now."
"But it must," she insisted. "I cannot now be other than one wifeamong many; and what place I hold among them is, remember, for you andyou alone to fix. No rule, no custom, obliges you to give anypreference in form or fact to one, merely because you chanced to marryher first."
"Such, nevertheless, did not seem to be the practice in your father'shouse. Your mother was as distinctly wife and mistress as if his solecompanion."
"My father," she replied, "did not marry a second time till within myown memory; and it was natural and usual to give the first place toone so much older and more experienced. I have no such claim, and whenyou see my companions you may find good reason to think that I am theleast fit of all to take the first place. Nor," she added, drawing mefrom the room, "do I wish it. If only you will keep in your mind onelittle place for the memory of our visit to your vessel and yourpromise respecting it, I shall be more than content."
Eveena's humble, unconscious self-abnegation was rendering theconversation intolerably painful, and even the embarrassing situationnow at hand was a welcome interruption. Eveena paused before a dooropening from the gallery into one of the rooms looking on theperistyle.
"You will find them there," she said, drawing back.
"Come with me, then," I answered; and as she shrank away, I tightenedmy clasp of her waist and drew her forward. The door opened, and wefound ourselves in presence of six veiled ladies in pink and silver,all of them, with one exception, a little taller and less slight thanmy bride. Eveena, with the kindness which never failed under the mostpainful trial or the most powerful impulses of natural feeling,extricated herself gently from my hold, took the hand of the first,and brought her up to me. The girl was evidently startled at the firstsight of her new possessor, and alarmed by a figure so much larger andmore powerful than any she had ever seen, exceeding probably thepicture drawn by her imagination.
"This," said Eveena gently and gravely, "is Eunane, the prettiest andmost accomplished scholar in her Nursery."
As I was about to acknowledge the introduction with the same coldpoliteness with which I should have bowed to a strange guest on Earth,Eveena took my left hand in her own and laid it on the maiden's veil,recalling to me at once the proprieties of the occasion and thejustice she had claimed for her unoffending and unintentional rivals;but at the same time bringing back in full force a remembrance shecould not have forgotten, but whose effect upon myself the ideas towhich she was habituated rendered her unable to anticipate. To acceptin her presence a second bride, by the same ceremonial act which hadso lately asserted my claim to herself, was intensely repugnant to myfeelings, and only her own self-sacrificing influence could haveovercome my reluctance. My hesitation was, I fear, perceptible toEunane; for, as I removed her veil and head-dress, her expression anda colour somewhat brighter than that of mere maiden shyness indicateddisappointment or mortified pride. She was certainly very beautiful,and perhaps, had I now seen them both for the first time, I might haveacquiesced in the truth of Eveena's self-depreciation. As it was,nothing could associate with the bright intelligent face, the cleargrey eyes and light brown hair, the lithe active form instinct withnervous energy, that charm which from our first acquaintance theirexpression of gentle kindness, and, later, the devoted affectionvisible in every look, had given to Eveena's features.
It is, I suppose, hardly natural to man to feel actual unkindnesstowards a young and beautiful girl who has given no personal offence.Having once admitted, the justice of Eveena's plea, and feeling thatshe would be more pained by the omission than by the fulfilment of theforms which courtesy and common kindness imperatively demanded, Ikissed Eunane's brow and spoke a few words to her, with as much oftenderness as I could feel or affect for Eveena's rival, after whathad passed to endear Eveena more than ever. The latter waited alittle, to allow me spontaneously to perform the same ceremony withthe other girls; but seeing my hesitation, she came forward again andpresented severally four others--Enva ("Snow" = Blanche), Leenoo("Rose"), Eirale, Elfe, all more or less of the usual type of femalebeauty in Mars, with long full tresses varying in tinge from flax todeep gold or the lightest brown; each with features almost faultless,and with all the attraction (to me unfailing) possessed for men whohave passed their youth by _la beaute du Diable_--the bloom of puregraceful girlhood. Eive, the sixth of the party, standing on the rightof the others, and therefore last in place according to Martial usage,was smaller and slighter than Eveena herself, and made an individualimpression on my attention by a manifest timidity and agitationgreater than any of the rest had evinced. As I removed her veil I wasstruck by the total unlikeness which her face and form presented tothose I had just saluted. Her hair was so dark as by contrast to seemblack; her complexion less fair than those of her companions, thoughas fair as that of an average Greek beauty; her eyes of deepest brown;her limbs, and especially the hands and feet, marvellously perfect inshape and colour, but in the delicacy and minuteness of their formsuggesting, as did all the proportions of her tiny figure, thepeculiar grace of childhood; an image in miniature of faultlessphysical beauty. In Eive alone of the bevy I felt a real interest; butthe interest called forth by a singularly pretty child, in whoseexpression the first glance discerns a character it will take long toread, rather than that commanded by the charms of earliest womanhood.
When I had completed the ceremonial round, there was a somewhatawkward silence, which Eveena at last broke by suggesting that Eunaneshould show us through the house, with which she had made the earliestacquaintance. This young girl readily took the lead thus assigned toher, and by some delicate manoeuvre, whose authorship I could notdoubt, I found her hand in mine as we made our tour. The number ofchambers was much greater than in Esmo's dwelling, the garden of theperistyle larger and more elaborately arranged, if not more beautiful.The ambau were more numerous than even the domestic service of solarge a mansion appeared to require. The birds, whose duties layoutside, were by this time asleep on their perches, and we forbore todisturb them. The central chamber of the seraglio, if I may so callit, the largest and midmost of those in the rear of the garden,devoted as of course to the ladies of the household, was especiallymagnificent.
When we stood in its midst, shy looks askance from all the sixbetrayed their secret ambition; though Eive's was but momentary, andso slight that I felt I might have unfairly suspected her ofpresumption. I left this room, however, in silence, and assigned toeach, of my maiden brides, in order as they had been presented to me,the rooms on the left; and then, as we stood once more in theperistyle, having postponed all further arrangements, all distributionof household duties, to the morrow (assigning, however, to Eunane,whose native energy and forwardness had made early acquaintance withthe dwelling and its dumb inhabitants, the charge of providing andpreparing with their assistance our morning meal), I said, "I have letthe business of the evening zyda actually encroach on midnight, andmust detain you from your rest no longer. Eveena, you know, I stillhave need of you."
She was standing at a little distance, next to Eunane; and the latter,with a smile half malicious, half triumphant, whispered something inher ear. There was a suppressed annoyance in Eveena's look whichprovoked me to interpose. On Earth I should never have been foolenough to meddle in a woman's quarrel. The weakest can take her ownpart in the warfare of taunt and innuendo, better and more venomouslythan could dervish, priest, or politician. But Eveena could no morelower herself to the ordinary level of feminine malice than I couldhave borne to hear her do so; and it was intolerable that one whosesweet humility commanded respect from myself should submit to slightor sneer from the lips and eyes of petulant girls. Eunane started as Ispoke, using that accent which gives its most pe
remptory force to theMartial imperative. "Repeat aloud what you have chosen to say toEveena in my presence."
If the first to express the ill-will excited by Eveena's evidentinfluence, though exerted in their own behalf, it was less that Eunanesurpassed her companions in malice than that they fell short of her inaudacity. Her school-mates had found her their most daring leader inmischief, the least reluctant scapegoat when mischief was to beatoned. But she was cowed, partly perhaps by her first collision withmasculine authority, partly, I fear, by sheer dread of physical forcevisibly greater than she had ever known by repute. Perhaps she was toomuch frightened to obey. At any rate, it was from Eveena, despite herpleading looks, that I extorted an answer. She yielded at last only tothat formal imperative which her conscience would not permit her todisobey, and which for the first time I now employed in addressingher.
"Eunane only repeated," Eveena said, with a reluctance so manifestthat one might have supposed her to be the offender, "a school-girl'sproverb:--
"'Ware the wrath that stands to cool: Then the sandal shows the rule.'"
The smile that had accompanied the whisper--though not so muchsuggestive of a woman's malignity as of a child's exultation in acompanion's disgrace--gave point and sting to the taunt. It is onchance, I suppose, that the effect of such things depends. Had thesaying been thrown at any of Eunane's equals, I should probably havebeen inclined to laugh, even if I felt it necessary to reprimand. But,angered at a hint which placed Eveena on their own level, I forgot howfar the speaker's experience and inexperience alike palliated theimpertinence. That the insinuation shocked none of those around me wasevident. Theirs were not the looks of women, however young andthoughtless, startled by an affront to their sex; but of childrenamazed at a child's folly in provoking capricious and irresponsiblepower. The angry quickness with which I turned to Eunane received adouble, though doubly unintentional, rebuke, equally illustrative ofMartial ideas and usages. The culprit cowered like a child expecting abrutal blow. A gentle pressure on my left arm evinced the same fear ina quarter from which its expression wounded me deeply. That pressurearrested not, as was intended, my hand, but my voice; and when I spokethe frightened girl looked up in surprise at its measured tones.
"Wrong, and wrong thrice over, Eunane. It is for me to teach you thebad taste of bringing into your new home the ideas and language ofschool. Meanwhile, in no case would you learn more of my rule thanconcerned your own fault. Take in exchange for your proverb thekindliest I have learned in your language:--
"'Whispered warnings reach the heart; Veil the blush and spare the smart.'
"But, happily for you, your taunt had not truth enough to sting; and Ican tell the story about which you are unduly curious as frankly asyou please.--Let me speak now, Eveena, that I may spare the need tospeak again and in another tone.--That Eveena seemed to have put usboth in a false position only convinced me that she had a motive sheknew would satisfy me as fully as herself. When I learned what thatmotive was, I was greatly surprised at her unselfishness and courage.If you threw me your veil to save me from drowning, how would you feelif my first words to you were:--'No one must think I could not swim,therefore even the household must believe you, in unveiling, guilty ofan unpardonable fault'?... Answer me, Eunane."
"I should let you sink next time," she replied, with a prettyhalf-dubious sauciness, showing that her worst fears at least wererelieved.
"Quite right; but you are less generous than Eveena. To hide how I hadacted on her advice, she would have had you suppose her guilty. Thatyou might not laugh at my authority, and 'find a dragon in the esve'snest,' she would have had me treat her as guilty."
"But I deserved it. A girl has no right to break the seal in themaster's absence," interposed Eveena, much more distressed thangratified by the vindication to which she was so well entitled.
"Let your tongue sleep, Eveena. So [with a kiss] I blot your firstmiscalculation, Eunane. Earth [the Evening Star of Mars] light yourdreams."
It was with visible reluctance that Eveena followed me into thechamber we had last left; and she expostulated as earnestly as herobedience would permit against the fiat that assigned it to her.
"Choose what room you please, then," I said; "but understand that, sofar as my will and my trust can make you, you are the mistress here."
"Well, then," she answered, "give me the little octagon beside yourown:"--the smallest and simplest, but to my taste the prettiest, roomin the house. "I should like to be near you still, if I may; but,believe me, I shall not be frozen (hurt) because you think anotherhand better able to steer the carriage, if mine may sometimes rest inyours."
Leading her into the room she had chosen, and having installed heramong the cushions that were to form her couch, I silenced decisivelyher renewed protest.
"Let me answer you on this point, once and for ever, Eveena. To methis seems matter of right, not of favour or fitness. But favour andfitness here go with right. I could no more endure to place anotherbefore or beside you than I could break the special bond between us,and deny the hope of which the Serpent" (laying my hand on hershoulder-clasp, which, by mere accident, was shaped into a faintresemblance to the mystic coil) "is the emblem; the hope that alonecan make such love as ours endurable, or even possible, to creaturesthat must die. She who knelt with me before the Emerald Throne, whotook with me the vows so awfully sanctioned, shall hold the firstplace in my home as in my heart till the Serpent's promise befulfilled."
Both were silent for some time, for never could we refer to thatVision--whether an objective fact, or an impression communicated fromone spirit to the other by the occult force of intense sympathy--saveby such allusion; and the remembrance never failed to affect us bothwith a feeling too deep for words. Eveena spoke again--
"I am sorry you have so bound yourself; perhaps only because you knewme first. And it shames me to receive fresh proof of your kindnessto-night."
"And why, my own?"
"Do not make me feel," she said, "that--though the measured sentencesyou have taught me to call scolding seemed the sharpest of allpenances--there is a heavier yet in the silence which withholdsforgiveness."
"What have I yet to forgive, Madonna?"
But Eveena could read my feelings in spite of my words, and knew thatthe pain she had given was too recent to allow me to misconceive herpenitence.
"I _ought_ to say, my interference. It was your right to rule as youchose, and my meddling was a far worse offence than Eunane's malice.But it was not _that_ you felt too deeply to reprove."
"True! Eunane hurt me a little; but I expected no such misjudgmentfrom you. By the touch that proved your alarm I know that I gave nocause for it."
"How so?" she asked in surprise.
"You laid your hand instinctively on my _left_ arm, the one yourpeople use. Had I made the slightest angry gesture, you would haveheld back my _right_. Had I deserved that Eveena should think so illof me--think me capable of doing such dishonour to her presence and tomy own roof, which should have protected an equal enemy from thatwhich you feared for a helpless girl? For what you would have checkedwas such a blow as men deal to men who can strike back; and the handthat had given it would have been unfit to clasp man's in friendshipor woman's in love. You yourself must have shrunk from its touch."
She caught and held it fast to her lips.
"Can I forget that it saved my life? I don't understand you at all,but I see that I have frozen your heart. I did fancy for one momentyou would strike, as passionate men and women often do strikeprovoking girls, perhaps forgetting your own strength; and I knew youwould be miserable if you did hurt her--in that way. The next moment Iwas ashamed, more than you will believe, to have wronged you so. Likeevery man, from the head of a household to the Arch-Judge or theCampta, you must rule by fear. But your wrath _will_ 'stand to cool;'and you will hate to make a girl cry as you would hate to send acriminal to the electric-rack, the lightning-stroke, or thevivisection-table. And, whatever you had done, do you fancy that Icoul
d shrink from you? I said, 'If you weary of your flower-bird youmust strike with the hammer;' and if you could do so, do you think Ishould not feel for your hand to hold it to the last?"
"Hush, Eveena! how can I bear such words? You might forgive me for anyoutrage to you: I doubt your easily forgetting cruelty to another. Ihave not a heart like yours. As I never failed a friend, so I neveryet forgave a foe. Yet even I might pardon one of those girls anattempt to poison myself, and in some circumstances I might even learnto like her better afterwards. But I doubt if I could ever touch againthe hand that had mixed the poison for another, though that other weremy mortal enemy."