“Man’s control in woman’s hand
   Sorest tries the household band. 
   Closer favourite’s kisses cling,
   Favourite’s fingers sharper sting.’”

“Very likely,” replied Eunane.  “I cannot understand any more than you can why Eveena screens instead of punishing us; why she endures what a word to him would put down under her sandal; but she does.  Does she cast no shadow because it never darkens his presence to us?  And after all, her mind is not a deeper darkness to me than his.  He enjoys life as no man here does; but what he enjoys most is a good chance of losing it; while those who find it so tedious guard it like watch-dragons.  When the number of accidents made it difficult to fill up the Southern hunt at any price, the Campta’s refusal to let him go so vexed him that Eveena was half afraid to show her sense of relief.  You would think he liked pain—­the scars of the kargynda are not his only or his deepest ones—­if he did not catch at every excuse to spare it.  And, again, why does he speak to Eveena as to the Campta, and to us as to children—­’child’ is his softest word for us?  Then, he is patient where you expect no mercy, and severe where others would laugh.  When Enva let the electric stove overheat the water, so that he was scalded horribly in his bath, we all counted that he would at least have paid her back the pain twice over.  But as soon as Eveena and Eive had arranged the bandages, he sent for her.  We could scarcely bring you to him, Enva; but he put out the only hand he could move to stroke your hair as he does Eive’s, and spoke for once with real tenderness, as if you were the person to be pitied!  Any one else would have laughed heartily at the figure her esve made with half her tail pulled out.  But not all Eveena’s pleading could obtain pardon for me.”

“That was caprice, not even dealing,” said Leenoo.  “You were not half so bad as Enva.”

“He made me own that I was,” replied Eunane.  “It never occurred to him to suppose or say that she did it on purpose.  But I was cruel on purpose to the bird, if I were not spiteful to its mistress.  ’Don’t you feel,’ he said, ’that intentional cruelty is what no ruler, whether of a household or of a kingdom, has a right to pass over?  If not, you can hardly be fit for a charge that gives animals into your power.’  I never liked him half so well; and I am sure I deserved a severer lesson.  Since then, I cannot help liking them both; though it is mortifying to feel that one is nothing before her.”

“It is intolerable,” said Enva bitterly; “I detest her.”

“Is it her fault?” asked Eunane with some warmth.  “They are so like each other and so unlike us, that I could fancy she came from his own world.  I went to her next day in her own room.”

“Ay,” interjected Leenoo with childish spite, “’kiss the foot and ‘scape the sandal.’”