nd it but slight; and before we reached the house I
had made up my mind to discard the apprehensions or precautions
recommended to me on their account. Far better, if need be, to die by
poison than to live in hourly terror of it. Better to be murdered than
to suspect of secret treason those with whom I must maintain the most
intimate relations, and whose sex and years made it intolerable to
believe them criminal. I dismissed the thought, then; and believing
that I had probably wronged them in allowing it to dwell for a moment
in my mind, I felt perhaps more tenderly than before towards them, and
certainly indisposed to name to Eveena a suspicion of which I was
myself ashamed. Perhaps, too, youth and beauty weighed in my
conclusion more than cool reason would have allowed. A Martial proverb
says--

"Trust a foe, and you may rue it;
Trust a friend, and perish through it.
Trust a woman if you will;--
Thrice betrayed, you'll trust her still."

As to the general warning, I was wishful to consult Eveena, and
unwilling to withhold from her any secret of my thoughts; but equally
averse to disturb her with alarms that were trying even to nerves
seasoned by the varied experience of twenty years against every open
peril.

CHAPTER XX - LIFE, SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC.

As we approached the house I caught sight of Eveena's figure among the
party gathered on the roof. She had witnessed the interview, but her
habitual and conscientious deference forbade her to ask a confidence
not volunteered; and she seemed fully satisfied when, on the first
occasion on which we were alone, I told her simply that the stranger
belonged to the Zinta and had been recommended by her father himself
to the charge of my estate. Though reluctant to disturb her mind with
fears she could not shake off as I could, and which would make my
every absence at least a season of terror, the sense of insecurity
doubtless rendered me more anxious to enjoy whenever possible the only
society in which it was permissible to be frank and off my guard. No
man in his senses would voluntarily have accepted the position which
had been forced upon me. The Zveltau never introduce aliens into their
households. Their leading ideas and fundamental principles so deeply
affect the conduct of existence, the motives of action, the bases of
all moral reasoning--so completely do the inferences drawn from them
and the habits of thought to which they lead pervade and tinge the