. Of the beginning of this fate I know nothing, but
I read from the first page that is open to me. It has to do with this
present life of mine. Learn, Leo Vincey, that from my childhood onwards
you have haunted me. Oh! when first I saw you yonder by the river, your
face was not strange to me, for I knew it--I knew it well in dreams.
When I was a little maid and slept one day amidst the flowers by the
river's brim, it came first to me--ask my uncle here if this be not so,
though it is true that your face was younger then. Afterwards again and
again I saw it in my sleep and learned to know that you were mine, for
the magic of my heart taught me this.

"Then passed the long years while I felt that you were drawing near to
me, slowly, very slowly, but ever drawing nearer, wending onward and
outward through the peoples of the world; across the hills, across the
plains, across the sands, across the snows, on to my side. At length
came the end, for one night not three moons ago, whilst this wise man,
my uncle, and I sat together here studying the lore that he has taught
me and striving to wring its secrets from the past, a vision came to me.

"Look you, I was lost in a charmed sleep which looses the spirit from
the body and gives it strength to stray afar and to see those things
that have been and that are yet to be. Then I saw you and your companion
clinging to a point of broken ice, over the river of the gulf. I do not
lie; it is written here upon the scroll. Yes, it was you, the man of
my dreams, and no other, and we knew the place and hurried thither and
waited by the water, thinking that perhaps beneath it you lay dead.

"Then, while we waited, lo! two tiny figures appeared far above upon the
icy tongue that no man may climb, and oh! you know the rest. Spellbound
we stood and saw you slip and hang, saw you sever the thin cord and rush
downwards, yes, and saw that brave man, Holly, leap headlong after you.

"But mine was the hand that drew you from the torrent, where otherwise
you must have drowned, you the love of the long past and of to-day, aye,
and of all time. Yes, you and no other, Leo Vincey. It was this spirit
that foresaw your danger and this hand which delivered you from death,
and--and would you refuse them now--when I, the Khania of Kaloon,
proffer them to you?"

So she spoke, and leaned upon the table, looking up into his face with
lips that trembled and with appealing eyes.

"Lady," said Leo, "you saved