people in whom the fear of
annihilation--and the absence of all the motives that impel men on
earth to face danger and death with calmness, or even to enjoy the
excitement of deadly peril--have extinguished manhood itself.

I could not, however, conceal from Eveena that I was about to leave
her for an adventure which could not but seem to her foolhardy and
motiveless. She was more than terrified when she understood that I
really intended to join the professional hunters in an enterprise
which, even on their part, is regarded by their countrymen with a
mixture of admiration and contempt, as one wherein only the hope of
large remuneration would induce any sensible man to share; and which,
from my utter ignorance of its conditions, must be obviously still
more dangerous to me. The confidence she was slowly learning from what
seemed to her extravagant indulgence, to me simply the consideration
due to a rational being, wife or comrade, slave or free, first found
expression in the freedom of her loving though provoking
expostulations.

"You must be tired of me," she said at last, "if you are so ready to
run the risk of parting out of mere curiosity."

"Sheer petulance!" I answered. "You know well that you are dearer to
me every day as I learn to understand you better; but a man cannot
afford to play the coward because marriage has given new value to
life. And you might remember that I have threefold the strength which
emboldens your hunters to incur all the dangers that seem to your
fancy so terrible."

That no shade of mere cowardice or feminine affectation influenced her
remonstrance was evident from her next words.

"Well, then, if you will go, however improper and outrageous the thing
may be, let me go with you. I cannot bear to wait alone, fancying at
every moment what may be happening to you, and fearing to see them
carry you back wounded or killed."

Touched by the unselfishness of her terror, and feeling that there was
some truth in her representation of the state of mind in which she
would spend the hours of my absence, I tried to quiet her by caresses
and soft words. But these she received as symptoms of yielding on my
part; and her persistence brought upon her at last the resolute and
somewhat sharp rebuke with which men think it natural and right to
repress the excesses of feminine fear.

"This is nonsense, Eveena. You cannot accompany me; and, if you could,
your presence would multiply tenfold the dange