What taught that of Egypt, which,
in a fashion, we still follow here? That hidden in a multitude of
manifestations, one Power great and good, rules all the universes: that
the holy shall inherit a life eternal and the vile, eternal death: that
men shall be shaped and judged by their own hearts and deeds, and here
and hereafter drink of the cup which they have brewed: that their real
home is not on earth, but beyond the earth, where all riddles shall be
answered and all sorrows cease. Say, dost thou believe these things, as
I do?"

"Aye, Ayesha, but Hes or Isis is thy goddess, for hast thou not told
us tales of thy dealings with her in the past, and did we not hear thee
make thy prayer to her? Who, then, is this goddess Hes?"

"Know, Leo, that she is what I named her--Nature's soul, no divinity,
but the secret spirit of the world; that universal Motherhood, whose
symbol thou hast seen yonder, and in whose mysteries lie hid all earthly
life and knowledge."

"Does, then, this merciful Motherhood follow her votaries with death
and evil, as thou sayest she has followed thee for thy disobedience, and
me--and another--because of some unnatural vows broken long ago?" Leo
asked quietly.

Resting her arm upon the table, Ayesha looked at him with sombre eyes
and answered--"In that Faith of thine of which thou speakest are there
perchance two gods, each having many ministers: a god of good and a god
of evil, an Osiris and a Set?"

He nodded.

"I thought it. And the god of ill is strong, is he not, and can put
on the shape of good? Tell me, then, Leo, in the world that is to-day,
whereof I know so little, hast thou ever heard of frail souls who for
some earthly bribe have sold themselves to that evil one, or to his
minister, and been paid their price in bitterness and anguish?"

"All wicked folk do as much in this form or in that," he answered.

"And if once there lived a woman who was mad with the thirst for beauty,
for life, for wisdom, and for love, might she not--oh! might she not
perchance----"

"Sell herself to the god called Set, or one of his angels? Ayesha,
dost thou mean"--and Leo rose, speaking in a voice that was full of
fear--"that thou art such a woman?"

"And if so?" she asked, also rising and drawing slowly near to him.

"If so," he answered hoarsely, "if so, I think that perhaps we had best
fulfil our fates apart----"

"Ah!" she said, with a little scream of pain as though a knife had
stabbed her, "