As we approached, however, they all
rose, the other ladies greeting me eagerly and warmly, Eveena rising
with difficulty and faltering the welcome which the rest had spoken
with enthusiastic earnestness. Forgetting for the moment the prudence
which ignorance of Martial customs had hitherto dictated, I lifted to
my lips the hand that she, following the example of the rest, but
shyly and half reluctantly, laid on my shoulder--a form very different
to the distant greeting I had heretofore received, and marking that I
was no longer to be treated as a stranger to the family. My unusual
salute brought the colour back to her cheeks, but no one else took
notice of it. I observed, however, that on this occasion, instead of
interposing himself between me and the ladies as usual, her father
left vacant the place next to her; and I seated myself at her feet.
She would have exchanged her reclining posture for that of the others,
but her mother gently drew her down to her former position.
"Eveena," said my host, "I have told our friend, what you know, that
there is in this world a society, of which I am a member, whose
principles are not those of our countrymen, but resemble rather those
which supplied the impulses on which he acted to-day.
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