What
was, however, specially characteristic was the delicate care with
which, even in this first meeting with one of her own family, she
contrived still to give the paramount place in her attention to her
husband, and never for a moment to let him feel excluded from a
conversation with whose topics he was imperfectly acquainted, and in
which he might have been supposed uninterested. The hours thus passed
pleasantly away; and, except when Kevima, joined us at the evening
meal, adding a new and unexpected pleasure to Eveena's natural delight
in this sudden reunion, we remained undisturbed until a very low
electric signal, sounding apparently through several chambers at once,
recalled Esmo's mind to the duties before him.
"You will not," he said, "return till late, and I wish you would
induce Eveena to ensure, by composing herself to sleep before your
return, that you shall not be asked to converse until the morning."
He withdrew with Kevima, and, as instructed, I proceeded to change my
dress for one of pure white adapted to the occasion, with only a band
of crimson around the waist and throat, and to invest myself in the
badge of the Order.
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