ic sat in his carriage on the
right side, and I had ever stood up for the dignities of my position.
But this occasion was to be an exception to all rule.

On the evening before, as I was sitting in my library at home
mournfully thinking of the occasion, telling myself that after all
I could not devote my friend to what some might think a premature
death, the door was opened, and Eva Crasweller was announced. She
had on one of those round, close-fitting men's hats which ladies now
wear, but under it was a veil which quite hid her face. "I am taking
a liberty, Mr Neverbend," she said, "in troubling you at the present
moment."

"Eva, my dear, how can anything you do be called a liberty?"

"I do not know, Mr Neverbend. I have come to you because I am very
unhappy."

"I thought you had shunned me of late."

"So I have. How could I help it, when you have been so anxious to
deposit poor papa in that horrid place?"

"He was equally anxious a few years since."

"Never! He agreed to it because you told him, and because you were
a man able to persuade. It was not that he ever had his heart in it,
even when it was not near enough to alarm himself. And he is not a
man fearful of death in the ordinary way. Papa is a brave man."

"My darling child, it is beautiful to hear you say so of him."

"He is going with you to-morrow simply because he has made you a
promise, and does not choose to have it said of him that he broke his
word even to save his own life. Is not that courage? It is not with
him as it is with you, who have your heart in the matter, because you
think of some great thing that you will do, so that your name may be
remembered to future generations."

"It is not for that, Eva. I care not at all whether my name be
remembered. It is for the good of many that I act."

"He believes in no good, but is willing to go because of his promise.
Is it fair to keep him to such a promise under such circumstances?"

"But the law--"

"I will hear nothing of the law. The law means you and your
influences. Papa is to be sacrificed to the law to suit your
pleasure. Papa is to be destroyed, not because the law wishes it, but
to suit the taste of Mr Neverbend."

"Oh, Eva!"

"It is true."

"To suit my taste?"

"Well--what else? You have got the idea into your head, and you will
not drop it. And you have persuaded him because he is your friend.
Oh, a most fatal friendship! He is to be sacrificed because, when
thinking of