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Eveena's momentary glance at once drew mine upon this "pet child," but neither disturbed her. Nor did she overact her part. "Eivé," said Enva one day, "never salts her tears or paints her blushes." As soon as she caught my look of doubt "Have I done wrong?" she said, in a tone half of confidence, half of reproach. "Punish me, then, Clasfempta, as you please with Eveena's sandal."
"Can you not imagine, or make Eveena tell you, Clasfempta, why women once purchased think it best to give smiles and kisses freely to one who can command their tears? Or do you fancy that their smiles are more loyal and sincere when won by kindness than...." "By fear? Sweeter, Enva, at any rate. Well, if I do not offend your feelings, I need not hesitate to disregard another of your customs."
Then, turning to Eveena, Enva spoke for the rest "We should have treated you less ill if we could at all have understood you. We understand you just as little now. Clasfempta is man after all, bridling his own temper as a strong man rules a large household of women or a herd of ambau.
To leave her alone is impossible; and if I cannot report that she is fully cared for in other hands, no command, nothing short of actual compulsion, will keep Eveena away from her." The girl looked up with a steady frank courage and unaffected readiness I had not expected. "I owe you much, Clasfempta, and still more perhaps to Eveena.
Clasfempta! you bear, I believe, outside, the fame of a wise and a firm man; but in these little hands you have been as weak a fool as the veriest dotard might have been; and may be yet." "As you will," I answered, stung into an anger which at any rate quelled the worst pain I had felt when I entered the room. "Fool or sage, Eivé, I was your fellow-creature, your protector, and your friend.
Offered in private, the kiss and smile given and not demanded, the present was accepted with frank affectionate gratitude. Eivé took her share in pettish shyness, waiting the moment when she might mingle unobserved with her childlike caresses the childish reproach "If you can buy kisses, Clasfempta, you don't want mine. And if you fancy I sell them, you shall have no more."
No, Clasfempta, it is a fancy, or you say it to comfort me, not because it is true." The expression of terror that again came over her face was too painful for endurance. To calm that terror I would have broken every oath, have risked every penalty. But in truth I could never have paused to ask what in such a case oath or law permitted, "Listen, Eunané," I said, "and be calm.
But, Clasfempta, the things 'a man cannot do' are the things men do every day; and women every hour!" Hitherto I had experienced only the tropical climate of Mars, with the exception of the short time spent in the northern temperate zone about the height of its summer. I was anxious, of course, to see something also of its winter, and an opportunity presented itself.
I answered her with a taunt, and, of course, that evening I was more perverse than ever, 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 the end, and that for once Clasfempta could mean to hurt.
As she would have said, a wife deserved the sandal for speaking without leave; nor experience notwithstanding would she think it safe to interrupt in my presence a favourite so pointedly honoured as Eveena. 'She waited, therefore, till my eyes gave the permission which hers had asked. "Why should you buy anything twice over, Clasfempta, whether it be a wife or an ambâ?
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