n with a fierce intentness. Yet she made no answer, not
a single word, not a sign even; she who had said her say and scorned to
plead her part.

I looked at Leo's ashen face. He leaned towards Atene, drawn perhaps by
the passion shining in her beauteous eyes, then of a sudden straightened
himself, shook his head and sighed. The colour flamed to his brow, and
his eyes grew almost happy.

"After all," he said, thinking aloud rather than speaking, "I have to do
not with unknowable pasts or with mystic futures, but with the things
of my own life. Ayesha waited for me through two thousand years; Atene
could marry a man she hated for power's sake, and then could poison him,
as perhaps she would poison me when I wearied her. I know not what oaths
I swore to Amenartas, if such a woman lived. I remember the oaths I
swore to Ayesha. If I shrink from her now, why then my life is a lie and
my belief a fraud; then love will not endure the touch of age and never
can survive the grave.

"Nay, remembering what Ayesha was I take her as she is, in faith and
hope of what she shall be. At least love is immortal and if it must, why
let it feed on memory alone till death sets free the soul."

Then stepping to where stood the dreadful, shrivelled form, Leo knelt
down before it and kissed her on the brow.

Yes, he kissed the trembling horror of that wrinkled head, and I think
it was one of the greatest, bravest acts ever done by man.

"Thou hast chosen," said Atene in a cold voice, "and I tell thee, Leo
Vincey, that the manner of thy choice makes me mourn my loss the more.
Take now thy--thy bride and let me hence."

But Ayesha still said no word and made no sign, till presently she sank
upon her bony knees and began to pray aloud. These were the words of
her prayer, as I heard them, though the exact Power to which it was
addressed is not very easy to determine, as I never discovered who or
what it was that she worshipped in her heart--"O Thou minister of the
almighty Will, thou sharp sword in the hand of Doom, thou inevitable Law
that art named Nature; thou who wast crowned as Isis of the Egyptians,
but art the goddess of all climes and ages; thou that leadest the man
to the maid, and layest the infant on his mother's breast, that bringest
our dust to its kindred dust, that givest life to death, and into the
dark of death breathest the light of life again; thou who causest the
abundant earth to bear, whose smile is Spring, whose laugh i