and earth
with light.

At last she dropped it, and said in a hollow tone: "Now I understand
everything. You met her when Bias gave her the bridal dowry which was to
purchase my release from my husband. How it must have enraged her! I
thought of it all, pondered and pondered how to spare her; but through
whom, except Tabus, could I return to Hanno the property, won in battle
by his blood, which he had thrown away for me? Tabus kept the family
wealth. And she--the marriage bond which two persons formed was sacred
and unassailable--the woman who broke her faith with her husband and
turned from him--was an abomination to her. How she loved her sons and
grandsons! I knew that she would never forgive the wrong I did Hanno.
From resentment to me she cured the man whom I hated."

"Yet probably also," said Hermon, "because my blighted youth aroused her
pity."

"Perhaps so," replied Ledscha hesitatingly, gazing thoughtfully into
vacancy. "She was what her demons made her. Hard as steel and gentle as a
tender girl. I have experienced it. Oh, that she should die with rancour
against me in her faithful old heart! She could be so kind!--even when I
confessed that you had won my love, she still held me dear. But there are
many great and small demons, and most of them were probably subject to
her. Tabus must have learned through them how deeply I offended her son
Satabus, and how greatly his son Hanno's life was darkened through me.
That is why she thwarted my vengeance, and her spirits aided her. Thus
all these things happened. I suspected it when I heard that she had
succumbed to death, which I--yes, I here--had held back from her with
severe toil through many a sleepless night. O these demons! They will
continue to act in the service of the dead. Wherever I may go, they will
pursue me and, at their mistress's bidding, baffle what I hope and
desire. I have learned this only too distinctly!"

"No, Ledscha, no," Hermon protested. "Every power ceases with death, even
that of the sorceress over spirits. You shall be freed, poor woman! You
will be permitted to go wherever you desire; and I shall model no spider
after your person, but the fairest of women. Thousands will see and
admire her, and--if the Muse aids me--whoever, enraptured by her beauty,
asks, 'Who was the model for this work which inflames the most obdurate
heart?' will be told, 'It was Ledscha, the daughter of Shalit, the
Biamite, whom Hermon of Alexandria found worthy o