"It is not kind; it is hardly worthy of you; but my first duty is to
you, and you have the right, if you will, to insist that I shall
reserve my life for your sake. But you command me also to forsake you
in danger and in sorrow; and nothing but the absolute force you may of
course employ shall compel me to obey you in that."

"I understand you, Eveena; and you, in your turn, must think and feel
that I intend to express neither displeasure nor pain; that I mean no
harshness to you, no less respect as well as love than I have always
shown you, when I say that obey you shall; that the same sense of duty
which impels you to refuse obliges me to enforce my command. At no
time would I have allowed you to risk your life where others might be
available. But if you were the only one who could help, I should,
under other circumstances, have felt that the same paramount duty that
attaches to me attached in a lighter degree to yourself. Now, as you
well know, the case is different; and even were Eunane not quite safe
in my hands and in Velna's, you must not run a risk that can be
avoided. You will promise me to remain on this side the peristyle or
in the further half of it, or I must confine you perforce; and it is
not kind or right in this hour of trouble to impose upon me so painful
a task."

With every tone, look, and caress that could express affection and
sympathy, Eveena answered--

"Do what seems your duty, and do not think that I misunderstand your
motive or feel the shadow of humiliation or unkindness. Make me obey
if you can, punish me if I disobey; but obey you, when you tell me,
for my own life's sake or for any other, to desert you in the hour of
need, of danger, and of sorrow, I neither will nor can." I cut short
the scene, bidding her a passionate farewell in view of the
probability that we should not meet again. I closed the door behind
me, having called her whom at this moment and in this case I could
best trust, because her worse as well as her better qualities were
alike guarantees for her obedience.

"Enva," I said, "you will keep this room till I release you; and you
will answer it to me, as the worst fault you can commit, if Eveena
passes this threshold, under whatever circumstances, until I give her
permission, or until, if it be beyond my power to give it, her father
takes the responsibilities of my home upon himself."

I procured the sedatives which might relieve the suffering I could not
hope to cur