the pettiness and poverty of the characters it had produced. A
Martial woman's whole experience may well be confined within a few
acres, and from the cradle to the grave she may see no more of the
world than can be discerned from the roof of her school or her
husband's home.

Eunane, with the assistance of the ambau, busied herself in removing
the remains of the meal. The other five, putting on their veils,
scampered up the inclined plane to the roof, much like children
released from table or from tasks. Turning to Eveena, who still
remained beside me, I said--

"Get your veil, and come out with me; I have not yet an idea where we
are, and scarcely a notion what the grounds are like."

She followed me to my apartment, out of which, opened the one she had
chosen, and as the window closed behind us she spoke in a tone of
appeal--

"Do not insist on my accompanying you. As you bade me always speak my
thought, I had much rather you would take one of the others."

"You professed," I said, "to take especial pleasure in a walk with me,
and this time I will be careful that you are not overtired."

"Of course I should like it," she answered; "but it would not be just.
Please let me this time remain to take my part of the household
duties, and make myself acquainted with the house. Choose your
companion among the others, whom you have scarcely noticed yet."

Preferring not only Eveena's company, but even my own, to that of any
of the six, and feeling myself not a little dependent on her guidance
and explanations, I remonstrated. But finding that her sense of
justice and kindness would yield to nothing short of direct command, I
gave way.

"You forget _my_ pleasure," I said at last. "But if you will not go,
you must at least tell me which I am to take. I will not pretend to
have a choice in the matter."

"Well, then," she answered, "I should be glad to see you take Eunane.
She is, I think, the eldest, apparently the most intelligent and
companionable, and she has had one mortification already she hardly
deserved."

"And is much the prettiest," I added maliciously. But Eveena was
incapable of even understanding so direct an appeal to feminine
jealousy.

"I think so," she said; "much the prettiest among us. But that will
make no difference under her veil."

"And must she keep down her veil," I asked, "in our own grounds?"

Eveena laughed. "Wherever she might be seen by any man but yourself."

"Call her then," I a