Across the Zodiac (52 page)

This condition surprised even Eveena as much as my resolve to make her
the bearer of the proposal that was in truth her own. But, however
reluctant, she would as soon have refused obedience to my request as
have withheld a kindness because it cost her an unexpected trial.
Taking Eunané with her, she approached and addressed the girl.
Whatever my own doubt as to her probable reception, however absurd in
my own estimation the thing I was induced to do, there was no
corresponding consciousness, no feeling but one of surprise and
gratification, in the face on which I turned my eyes. There was a
short and earnest debate; but, as I afterwards learned, it arose
simply from the girl's astonishment at terms which, extravagant even
for the beauties of the day, were thrice as liberal as she had
ventured to dream of. Eveena and Eunané were as well aware of this as
herself; the right of beauty to a special price seemed to them as
obvious as in Western Europe seems the right of rank to exorbitant
settlements; but they felt it as impossible to argue the point as a
solicitor would find it unsafe to expound to a
gentleman
the
different cost of honouring Mademoiselle with his hand and being
honoured with that of Milady. Velna's remonstrances were suppressed;
she rose, and, accompanied by Eveena and Eunané, approached a desk in
one corner of the room, occupied by a lady past middle life. The
latter, like all those of her sex who have adopted masculine
independence and a professional career, wore no veil over her face,
and in lieu of the feminine head-dress a band of metal around the
head, depending from which a short fall of silken texture drawn back
behind the ears covered the neck and upper edge of the dark robe. This
lady took from a heap by her side a slip containing the usual form of
marriage contract, and filled in the blanks. At a sign from Eveena, I
had by this time approached close enough to hear the language of
half-envious, half-supercilious wonder in which the schoolmistress
congratulated her pupil on her signal conquest, and the terms she had
obtained, as well as the maiden's unaffected acknowledgment of her own
surprise and conscious unworthiness. I could
feel
, despite the
concealment of her form and face, Eveena's silent expression of pained
disgust with the one, and earnest womanly sympathy with the other. The
document was executed in the usual triplicate.

The girl retired for a few minutes, and reappeared in a cloak and veil
like those of her new companions, but of comparatively cheap
materials. As we passed the threshold, Eveena gently and tacitly but
decisively assigned to her
protégée
her own place beside me, and put
her right hand in my left. The agitation with which it manifestly
trembled, though neither strange nor unpleasing, added to the extreme
embarrassment I felt; and I had placed her next to Eunané in the
carriage and taken my seat beside Eveena, whom I never permitted to
resign her own, before a single spoken word had passed in this
extraordinary courtship, or sanctioned the brief and practical
ceremony of marriage.

I was alone in my own room that evening when a gentle scratching on
the window-crystal entreated admission. I answered without looking up,
assuming that Eveena alone would seek me there. But hers were not the
lips that were earnestly pressed on my hand, nor hers the voice that
spoke, trembling and hesitating with stronger feeling than it could
utter in words—

"I do thank you from my heart. I little thought you would wish to make
me so happy. I shrank from showing you the letter lest you should
think I dared to hope.... It is not only Velna; it is such strange joy
and comfort to be held fast by one who cares—to feel safe in hands as
kind as they are strong. You said you could love none save Eveena;
but, Clasfempta, your way of not loving is something better, gentler,
more considerate than any love I ever hoped or heard of."

I could read only profound sincerity and passionate gratitude in the
clear bright eyes, softened by half-suppressed tears, that looked up
from where she knelt beside me. But the exaggeration was painfully
suggestive, confirming the ugly view Enva had given yesterday of the
life that seemed natural and reasonable to her race, and made ordinary
human kindness appear something strange and romantic by contrast.

"Surely, Eunané, every man wishes those around him happy, if it do not
cost too much to make them so?"

"No, indeed! Oftener the master finds pleasure in punishing and
humiliating, the favourite in witnessing her companions' tears and
terror. They like to see the household grateful for an hour's
amusement, crouching to caprice, incredulously thankful for barest
justice. One book much read in our schools says that 'cruelty is a
stronger, earlier, and more tenacious human instinct than sympathy;'
and another that 'half the pleasure of power lies in giving pain, and
half the remainder in being praised for sparing it.' ... But that was
not all: Eveena was as eager to be kind as you were."

"Much more so, Eunané."

"Perhaps. What seemed natural to her was strange to you. But it was
your
thought to put Velna on equal terms with us; taking her out of
mere kindness, to give her the dowry of a Prince's favourite.
That
surprised Eveena, and it puzzled me. But I think I half understand you
now, and if I do.... When Eveena told us how you saved her and defied
the Regent, and Eivé asked you about it, you said so quietly, 'There
are some things a man cannot do.' Is buying a girl cheap, because she
is not a beauty, one of those things?"

"To take any advantage of her misfortune—to make her feel it in my
conduct—to give her a place in my household on other terms than her
equals—to show her less consideration or courtesy than one would give
to a girl as beautiful as yourself—yes, Eunané! To my eyes, your
friend is pleasant and pretty; but if not, would you have liked to
feel that she was of less account here than yourself, because she has
not such splendid beauty as yours?"

Eunané was too frank to conceal her gratification in this first
acknowledgment of her charms, as she had shown her mortification while
it was withheld—not, certainly, because undeserved. Her eyes
brightened and her colour deepened in manifest pleasure. But she was
equally frank in her answer to the implied compliment to her
generosity, of whose justice she was not so well assured.

"I am afraid I should half have liked it, a year ago. Now, after I
have lived so long with you and Eveena, I should be shamed by it! But,
Clasfempta, the things 'a man cannot do' are the things men do every
day;—and women every hour!"

Hitherto I had experienced only the tropical climate of Mars, with the
exception of the short time spent in the northern temperate zone about
the height of its summer. I was anxious, of course, to see something
also of its winter, and an opportunity presented itself. No
institution was more obviously worth a visit than the great University
or principal place of highest education in this world, and I was
invited thither in the middle of the local winter. To this University
many of the most promising youths, especially those intended for any
of the Martial professions—architects, artists, rulers, lawyers,
physicians, and so forth—are often sent directly from the schools, or
after a short period of training in the higher colleges. It is situate
far within the north temperate zone on the shore of one of the longest
and narrowest of the great Martial gulfs, which extends from
north-eastward to south-west, and stretches from 43° N. to 10° S.
latitude. The University in question is situate nearly at the
extremity of the northern branch of this gulf, which splits into two
about 300 miles from its end, a canal of course connecting it with the
nearest sea-belt. I chose to perform this journey by land, following
the line of the great road from Amacasfe to Qualveskinta for about 800
miles, and then turning directly northward. I did not suppose that I
should find a willing companion on this journey, and was myself
wishful to be alone, since I dared not, in her present state of
health, expose Eveena to the fatigue and hardship of prolonged winter
travelling by land. To my surprise, however, all the rest, when aware
that I had declined to take her, were eager to accompany me. Chiefly
to take her out of the way, and certainly with no idea of finding
pleasure in her society, I selected Enva; next to Leenoo the most
malicious of the party, and gifted with sufficient intelligence to
render her malice more effective than Leenoo's stupidity could be.
Enva, moreover, with the vigorous youthful vitality-so often found on
Earth in women of her light Northern complexion, seemed less likely to
suffer from the severity of the weather or the fatigue of a land
journey than most of her companions. When I spoke of my intention to
Davilo, I was surprised to find that he considered even feminine
company a protection.

"Any attempt upon you," he said, "must either involve your companion,
for which there can be no legal excuse preferred, or else expose the
assailant to the risk of being identified through her evidence."

I started accordingly a few days before the winter solstice of the
North, reaching the great road a few miles from the point at which it
crosses another of the great gulfs running due north and south, at its
narrowest point in latitude 3° S. At this point the inlet is no more
than twenty miles wide, and its banks about a hundred feet in height.
At this level and across this vast space was carried a bridge,
supported by arches, and resting on pillars deeply imbedded in the
submarine rock at a depth about equal to the height of the land on
either side. The Martial seas are for the most part shallow, the
landlocked gulfs being seldom 100 fathoms, and the deepest ocean
soundings giving less than 1000. The vast and solid structure looked
as light and airy as any suspension bridge across an Alpine ravine.
This gigantic viaduct, about 500 Martial years old, is still the most
magnificent achievement of engineering in this department. The main
roads, connecting important cities or forming the principal routes of
commerce in the absence of convenient river or sea carriage, are
carried over gulfs, streams, ravines, and valleys, and through hills,
as Terrestrial engineers have recently promised to carry railways over
the minor inequalities of ground. That which we were following is an
especially magnificent road, and signalised by several grand
exhibitions of engineering daring and genius. It runs from Amacasfe
for a thousand miles in one straight line direct as that of a Roman
road, and with but half-a-dozen changes of level in the whole
distance. It crossed in the space of a few miles a valley, or rather
dell, 200 feet in depth, and with semi-perpendicular sides, and a
stream wider than the Mississippi above the junction of the Ohio. Next
it traversed the precipitous side of a hill for a distance of three or
four miles, where Nature had not afforded foothold for a rabbit or a
squirrel. The stupendous bridges and the magnificent open road cut in
the side of the rock, its roof supported on the inside by the hill
itself, on the outside by pillars left at regular intervals when the
stone was cut, formed from one point a single splendid view. Pointing
it out to Enva, I was a little surprised to find her capable, under
the guidance of a few remarks from myself, of appreciating and taking
pride in the marvellous work of her race. In another place, a tunnel
pierced directly an intervening range of hills for about eight miles,
interrupted only in two points by short deep open cuttings. This
passage, unlike those on the river previously mentioned, was
constantly and brilliantly lighted. The whole road indeed was lit up
from the fall of the evening to the dispersion of the morning mist
with a brilliancy nearly equal to that of daylight. As I dared not
travel at a greater rate than twenty-five miles per hour—my
experience, though it enabled me to manage the carriage with
sufficient skill, not giving me confidence to push it to its greatest
speed—the journey must occupy several days. We had, therefore, to
rest at the stations provided by public authority for travellers
undertaking such long land journeys. These are built like ordinary
Martial houses, save that in lieu of peristyle or interior garden is
an open square planted with shrubs and merely large enough to afford
light to the inner rooms. The chambers also are very much smaller than
those of good private houses. As these stations are nearly always
placed in towns or villages, or in well-peopled country
neighbourhoods, food is supplied by the nearest confectioner to each
traveller individually, and a single person, assisted by the ambau, is
able to manage the largest of them.

The last two or three days of our journey were bitterly cold, and not
a little trying. My own undergarment of thick soft leather kept me
warmer than the warmest greatcoat or cloak could have done, though I
wore a large cloak of the kargynda's fur in addition—the prize of the
hunt that had so nearly cost me dear, a personal and very gracious
present from the Camptâ. My companion, who had not the former
advantage, though wrapped in as many outer garments and quilts as I
had thought necessary, felt the cold severely, and felt still more the
dense chill mist which both by night and day covered the greater part
of the country. This was not infrequently so thick as to render
travelling almost perilous; and but that an electric light, required
by law, was placed at each end of the carriage, collisions would have
been inevitable. These hardships afforded another illustration of the
subjection of the sex resulting from the rule of theoretical equality.
More than a year's experience of natural kindness and consideration
had not given Enva courage to make a single complaint; and at first
she did her best to conceal the weeping which was the only, but almost
continuous, expression of her suffering. She was almost as much
surprised as gratified by my expressions of sympathy, and the trouble
I took to obtain, at the first considerable town we reached, an
apparatus by which the heat generated by motion itself was made to
supply a certain warmth through the tubular open-work of the carriage
to the persons of its occupants. The cold was as severe as that of a
Swedish winter, though we never approached within seventeen degrees of
the Arctic circle, a distance from the Pole equivalent to that of
Northern France. The Martial thermometer, in form more like a
watch-barometer, which I carried in my belt, marked a cold equivalent
to 12° below zero C. in the middle of the day; and when left in the
carriage for the night it had registered no less than 22° below zero.