Part 17 (2/2)
”Well, then,” she answered, ”give me the little octagon beside your own:”--the smallest and simplest, but to my taste the prettiest, room in 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 another hand better able to steer the carriage, if mine may sometimes rest in yours.”
Leading her into the room she had chosen, and having installed her among the cus.h.i.+ons that were to form her couch, I silenced decisively her renewed protest.
”Let me answer you on this point, once and for ever, Eveena. To me this seems matter of right, not of favour or fitness. But favour and fitness here go with right. I could no more endure to place another before or beside you than I could break the special bond between us, and deny the hope of which the Serpent” (laying my hand on her shoulder-clasp, which, by mere accident, was shaped into a faint resemblance to the mystic coil) ”is the emblem; the hope that alone can make such love as ours endurable, or even possible, to creatures that must die. She who knelt with me before the Emerald Throne, who took with me the vows so awfully sanctioned, shall hold the first place in my home as in my heart till the Serpent's promise be fulfilled.”
Both were silent for some time, for never could we refer to that Vision--whether an objective fact, or an impression communicated from one spirit to the other by the occult force of intense sympathy--save by such allusion; and the remembrance never failed to affect us both with a feeling too deep for words. Eveena spoke again--
”I am sorry you have so bound yourself; perhaps only because you knew me first. And it shames me to receive fresh proof of your kindness to-night.”
”And why, my own?”
”Do not make me feel,” she said, ”that--though the measured sentences you have taught me to call scolding seemed the sharpest of all penances--there is a heavier yet in the silence which withholds forgiveness.”
”What have I yet to forgive, Madonna?”
But Eveena could read my feelings in spite of my words, and knew that the pain she had given was too recent to allow me to misconceive her penitence.
”I _ought_ to say, my interference. It was your right to rule as you chose, 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 misjudgment from you. By the touch that proved your alarm I know that I gave no cause for it.”
”How so?” she asked in surprise.
”You laid your hand instinctively on my _left_ arm, the one your people use. Had I made the slightest angry gesture, you would have held back my _right_. Had I deserved that Eveena should think so ill of me--think me capable of doing such dishonour to her presence and to my own roof, which should have protected an equal enemy from that which you feared for a helpless girl? For what you would have checked was such a blow as men deal to men who can strike back; and the hand that had given it would have been unfit to clasp man's in friends.h.i.+p or 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 moment you would strike, as pa.s.sionate men and women often do strike provoking girls, perhaps forgetting your own strength; and I knew you would be miserable if you did hurt her--in that way. The next moment I was ashamed, more than you will believe, to have wronged you so. Like every man, from the head of a household to the Arch-Judge or the Campta, 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 a criminal to the electric-rack, the lightning-stroke, or the vivisection-table. And, whatever you had done, do you fancy that I could shrink from you? I said, 'If you weary of your flower-bird you must strike with the hammer;' and if you could do so, do you think I should not feel for your hand to hold it to the last?”
”Hush, Eveena! how can I bear such words? You might forgive me for any outrage to you: I doubt your easily forgetting cruelty to another. I have not a heart like yours. As I never failed a friend, so I never yet forgave a foe. Yet even I might pardon one of those girls an attempt to poison myself, and in some circ.u.mstances I might even learn to like her better afterwards. But I doubt if I could ever touch again the hand that had mixed the poison for another, though that other were my mortal enemy.”
CHAPTER XIX - A COMPLETE ESTABLISHMENT.
Before I slept Eveena had convinced me, much to my own discomfiture, how very limited must be any authority that could be delegated to her.
In such a household there could be no second head or deputy, and an attempt to devolve any effective charge on her would only involve her in trouble and odium. Even at the breakfast, spread as usual in the centre of the peristyle, she entreated that we should present ourselves separately. Eunane appeared to have performed very dexterously the novel duty a.s.signed to her. The _ambau_ had obeyed her orders with well-trained prompt.i.tude, and the _carvee_, in bringing fruit, leaves, and roots from the outer garden, had more than verified all that on a former occasion Eveena had told me of their cleverness and quick comprehension of instructions. Eunane's face brightened visibly as I acknowledged the neatness and the tempting appearance of the meal she had set forth. She was yet more gratified by receiving charge for the future of the same duty, and authority to send, as is usual, by an amba the order for that princ.i.p.al part of each day's food which is supplied by the confectioner. By reserving for Eveena the place among the cus.h.i.+ons immediately on my left, I made to the a.s.sembled household the expected announcement that she was to be regarded as mistress of the house; feminine punctiliousness on points of domestic precedence strikingly contrasting the unceremonious character of intercourse among men out of doors. The very ambau recognise the mistress or the favourite, as dogs the master of their Earthly home.
The ladies were at first shy and silent, Eunane only giving me more than a monosyllabic answer to my remarks, and even Eunane never speaking save in reply to me. A trivial incident, however, broke through this reserve, and afforded me a first taste of the petty domestic vexations in store for me. The beverage most to my liking was always the _carcara_--juice flavoured with roasted kernels, something resembling coffee in taste. On this occasion the _carcara_ and another favourite dish had a taste so peculiar that I pushed both aside almost untouched. On observing this, the rest--Enva, Leenoo, Elfe, and Eirale--took occasion to criticise the articles in question with such remarks and grimaces as ill-bred children might venture for the annoyance of an inexperienced sister. I hesitated to repress this outbreak as it deserved, till Eunane's bitter mortification was evident in her brightening colour and the doubtful, half-appealing glance of tearful eyes. Then a rebuke, such as might have been appropriately addressed yesterday to these rude school-girls by their governess, at once silenced them. As we rose, I asked Eveena, who, with more courtesy than the rest of us, had finished her portion--
”Is there any justice in these reproaches? I certainly don't like the carcara to-day, but it does not follow that Eunane is in fault.”
The rest, Eunane included, looked their annoyance at this appeal; but Eveena's temper and kindness were proof against petulance.
”The carcara is in fault,” she said; ”but I don't think Eunane is. In learning cookery at school she had her materials supplied to her; this time the _carve_ has probably given her an unripe or overripe fruit which has spoiled the whole.”
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