“Somewhere! I hope you have not lost it. I received one at the same time; there mine is,—that one filled with flowers.”
Nenetzin did not look.
“When he made you the gift, I think he meant more than a compliment. He is a lover to be proud of, and, sister, a smile might win him.”
“I do not care for lovers.”
“Not care to be loved?”
Nenetzin turned to her with tearful eyes. “Just now you said Io’ wanted to be treated as a man; for the same reason, O Tula, I want to be treated as a woman. I do want to be loved, but not as children are.”
Tula put her arm around her, lovingly. “Never mind. I will learn better afterwhile. I treat you as a child from habit, and because of the warm, sweet love of our childhood. O that the love would last always!”
They were silent then, each intent upon her separate thought, both unconscious that the path theretofore so peacefully travelled together was now divergent, and that the fates were leading them apart forever. Of all the evil angels of humanity, that one is the most cruel whose mission it is to sunder the loves of the household.
“Nenetzin, you have been crying,—over what? Lean on me, confide in me!”
“You will make light of what I say.”