e public apartments of her husband's house, still less interpose in
any matter of business, and no doubt thought that she was taking
outrageous advantage of my ignorance and inexperience.

"I will scold you presently, child," I said quickly and low. "What is
it?"

"Sign at once," she whispered, "and ask no questions. Deal with me as
you will afterwards. You must take what is given you now, without
comment or objection, simply expressing your thanks."

"_Must_! Eveena?"

"It is not safe to refuse or slight gifts from such a quarter," she
answered, in the same low tone. "Trust me so far; please do what I
entreat of you now. I must bear your displeasure if I fail to satisfy
you when we are alone."

Her manner was so agitated and so anxious that it recalled to me at
once the advice of Esmo upon the same point, though the fears which
had prompted so strange an intervention were wholly incomprehensible
to me. I knew her, however, by this time too well to refuse the trust
she now for the first time claimed, and taking the documents one by
one as if I had perfectly understood them, I wrote my name in the
space left blank for it, and allowed the official to stamp the slips
without a word. I then expressed briefly but earnestly my thanks both
to the Autocrat and to the officials who had been the agents of his
kindness. They retired, and I looked round for Eveena; but as soon as
she saw that I was about to comply with her request, she had quitted
the room. Alone in my own house, knowing nothing of its geography,
having no notion how to summon the brute domestics--if, indeed, the
dwelling were furnished with those useful creatures, without whom a
Martial household would be signally incomplete--I could only look for
the spring that opened the principal door. This should lead into the
gallery which, as I judged, must divide the hall and the front
apartments from those looking into the peristyle. Having found and
pressed this spring, the door opened on a gallery longer, wider, and
more elaborately ornamented than that of the only Martial mansions
into which I had been hitherto admitted. Looking round in no little
perplexity, I observed a niche in which stood a statue of white
relieved by a scarlet background; and beside this statue, crouching
and half hidden, a slight pink object, looking at first like a bundle
of drapery, but which in a moment sprang up, and, catching my hand,
made me aware that Eveena had been waiting for me.