You forget that I hold exactly the same position with the
youngest among them, and cannot presume even to suggest, much less to
direct."
I was silent, and after a pause she went on--
"It is not for me to advise you; but"--
"Speak your thought, now and always, Eveena. Even if I did not stand
in so much need of your guidance in a new world, I never yet refused
to hear counsel; and it is a wife's right to offer it."
"Is it? We are not so taught," she answered. "I am afraid you have
rougher ground to steer over than you are aware. Alone with you, I
hope I should have done nay best, remembering the lesson of the
leveloo, never to give you the pain of teaching a different one. But
we shall no longer be alone; and you cannot hope to manage seven as
you might manage one. Moreover, these girls have neither had that
first experience of your nature which made that lesson so impressive
to me, nor the kindly and gentle training, under a mother's care and a
father's mild authority, that I had enjoyed. They would not understand
the control that is not enforced. They will obey when they must; and
will feel that they must obey when they cannot deceive, and dare not
rebel.
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