it was an infinite relief to give.  If I could not observe equal gentleness of word and manner in absolutely forbidding her to approach, either Eunane’s chamber or my own, it was because, the moment she conceived what I was about to say, her almost indignant revolt from the command was apparent.  For the first and last time she distinctly and firmly refused compliance, not merely with the kindly though very decided request at first spoken, but with the formal and peremptory command by which I endeavoured to enforce it.

“You command me to neglect a sister in peril and suffering,” she said.  “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.”