make; and the money you gave me yesterday
would have paid all she would cost you for many years. Besides, it
would please Eunane, and it would make Velna so happy."

"You must know far better than I can what is likely to make her
happy," I replied. "Strange to the ideas and customs of your world, I
cannot conceive that a woman can wish to take the last place in a
household like ours rather than the first or only one with the poorest
of her people."

"She will hardly have the choice," Eveena answered. "Those whom you
can call poor mostly wait till they can have their choice before they
marry; and if taken by some one who could not afford a more expensive
choice, she would only be neglected, or dismissed ill provided for, as
soon as he could purchase one more to his taste."

"If," I rejoined at last, "you think it a kindness to her, and are
sure she will so think it; if you wish it, and will avouch her
contentment with a place in the household of one who does not desire
her, I will comply with this as with any wish of yours. But it is not
to my: mind to take a wife out of mere compassion, as I might readily
adopt a child."

Once more, with all our mutual affection and appreciation of each
other's character, Eveena and I were fat as the Poles apart in thought
if not in feeling. It was as impossible for her to emancipate herself
utterly from the ideas and habits of her own world, as for me to
reconcile myself to them. I led her back at last to her seat, and
beckoned Eunane to my side.

"Eveena," I said, "has been urging me to offer your friend yonder a
place in our household."

Though I could not see her face, the instant change in her attitude,
the eager movement of her hands, and the elastic spring that suddenly
braced her form, expressed her feeling plainly enough.

"It must be done, I suppose," I murmured rather to myself than to
them, as Eunane timidly put out her hand and gratefully clasped
Eveena's. "Well, it is to be done for you, and you must do it."

"How can I?" exclaimed Eunane in astonishment; and Eveena added, "It
is for you; you only can name your terms, and it would be a strange
slight to her to do so through us."

"I cannot help that. I will not 'act the lie' by affecting any
personal desire to win her, and I could not tell her the truth. Offer
her the same terms that contented the rest; nay, if she enters my
household, she shall not feel herself in a secondary or inferior
position."

This co