Of course they cost nothing save the original purchase.
They last for half a lifetime, and are not costly at the outset. But I
have news for you which, I venture to think, will be as little
agreeable to you as to ourselves. Your journey must begin tomorrow,
and this, therefore, is the only opportunity you will have for such an
excursion as you propose."
"Then," I said, "will Eveena still wish to share it?"
Even her mother's face seemed to ask what in the world that could
matter; but a movement of the daughter's veiled head reminded me that
I was blundering; and pressing her little hand as she lay beside me, I
took her compliance for granted.
The morning mist had given place to hot bright sunshine when we
started. At first our road lay between enclosures like that which
surrounded Esmo's dwelling.
Presently the lines were broken here and there by such fields as I had
seen in descending from Asnyca; some filled with crops of human food,
some with artificial pastures, in which Unicorns or other creatures
were feeding. I saw also more than one field wherein the _carvee_ were
weeding or gathering fruit, piling their burdens in either case as
soon as their beaks were full into bags or baskets.
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