“Well, then,” she answered, “I should be glad to see you take Eunane.  She is, I think, the eldest, apparently the most intelligent and companionable, and she has had one mortification already she hardly deserved.”

“And is much the prettiest,” I added maliciously.  But Eveena was incapable of even understanding so direct an appeal to feminine jealousy.

“I think so,” she said; “much the prettiest among us.  But that will make no difference under her veil.”

“And must she keep down her veil,” I asked, “in our own grounds?”

Eveena laughed.  “Wherever she might be seen by any man but yourself.”

“Call her then,” I answered.

Eveena hesitated.  But having successfully carried her own way on the main question, she would not renew her remonstrances on a minor point; and finding her about to join the rest, she drew Eunane apart.  Eunane came up to me alone, Eveena having busied herself in some other part of the house.  She approached slowly as if reluctant, and stood silent before me, her manner by no means expressive of satisfaction.

“Eveena thought,” I said, “that you would like to accompany me; but if not, you may tell her so; and tell her in that case that she must come.”

“But I shall be glad to go wherever you please,” replied Eunane.  “Eveena did not tell me why you sent for me, and”——­

“And you were afraid to be scolded for spoiling the breakfast?  You have heard quite enough of that.”

“You dropped a word last night,” she answered, “which made me think you would keep your displeasure till you had me alone.”

“Quite true,” I said, “if I had any displeasure to keep.  But you might spoil a dozen meals, and not vex me half as much as the others did.”

“Why?” she asked in surprise.  “Girls and women always spite one another if they have a chance, especially one who is in disfavour or disgrace with authority.”

“So much the worse,” I answered.  “And now—­you know as much or as little of the house as any of us; find the way into the grounds.”

A narrow door, not of crystal as usual, but of metal painted to resemble the walls, led directly from one corner of the peristyle into the grounds outside.  I had inferred on my arrival, by the distance from the road to the house, that their extent was considerable, but I was surprised alike by their size and arrangement.  On two sides they were bounded by a wall about four hundred yards in length—­that parting them from the road was about twice as long.  They were laid out with few of the usual orchard plots and beds of different fruits and vegetables, but rather in the form of a small park, with trees of various sorts, among which the fruit trees were a minority.  The surface was broken by natural rising grounds and artificial terraces; the soil was turfed in the manner I have previously described, with minute plants of different colours arranged in bands and patterns.  Here