In any case I shall see little but a continuation of what I see
already; so if you cannot bear it, we will go back."
By this time Esmo, who had been in the bows, had joined us, wishing to
know why I had stopped the boat.
"This child," I said, "is not used to travelling, and the tunnel
frightens her; so that I think, after all, we had better take the
usual course across the mountains."
"Nonsense!" he answered. "There is no danger here; less probably than
in an ordinary drive, certainly less than in a balloon. Don't spoil
her, my friend. If you begin by yielding to so silly a caprice as
this, you will end by breaking her heart before the two years are
out."
"Do go on," whispered Eveena. "I was very silly; I am not so
frightened now, and if you will hold me fast, I will not misbehave
again."
Esmo had taken the matter out of my hands, desiring the boatman to
proceed; and though I sympathised with my bride's feminine terror much
more than her father appeared to do, I was selfishly anxious, in spite
of my declaration that there could be no novelty in this tunnel, to
see one thing certainly original--the means by which so narrow and so
long a passage could be efficiently ventilated.
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