wouldst thou away to Atene? I tell thee that thou canst
not leave me. I have power--above all men thou shouldst know it, whom
once I slew. Nay, thou hast no memory, poor creature of a breath, and
I--I remember too well. I will not hold thee dead again--I'll hold
thee living. Look now on my beauty, Leo"--and she bent her swaying
form towards him, compelling him with her glorious, alluring eyes--"and
begone if thou canst. Why, thou drawest nearer to me. Man, that is not
the path of flight.

"Nay, I will not tempt thee with these common lures. Go, Leo, if thou
wilt. Go, my love, and leave me to my loneliness and my sin. Now--at
once. Atene will shelter thee till spring, when thou canst cross the
mountains and return to thine own world again, and to those things of
common life which are thy joy. See, Leo, I veil myself that thou mayest
not be tempted," and she flung the corner of her cloak about her head,
then asked a sudden question through it--"Didst thou not but now return
to the Sanctuary with Holly after I bade thee leave me there alone?
Methought I saw the two of you standing by its doors."

"Yes, we came to seek thee," he answered.

"And found more than ye sought, as often chances to the bold--is it not
so? Well, I willed that ye should come and see, and protected you where
others might have died."

"What didst thou there upon the throne, and whose were those forms which
we saw bending before thee?" he asked coldly.

"I have ruled in many shapes and lands, Leo. Perchance they were ancient
companions and servitors of mine come to greet me once again and to hear
my tidings. Or perchance they were but shadows of thy brain, pictures
like those upon the fire, that it pleased me to summon to thy sight, to
try thy strength and constancy.

"Leo Vincey, know now the truth; that all things are illusions, even
that there exists no future and no past, that what has been and what
shall be already _is_ eternally. Know that I, Ayesha, am but a magic
wraith, foul when thou seest me foul, fair when thou seest me fair; a
spirit-bubble reflecting a thousand lights in the sunshine of thy smile,
grey as dust and gone in the shadow of thy frown. Think of the throned
Queen before whom the shadowy Powers bowed and worship, for that is I.
Think of the hideous, withered Thing thou sawest naked on the rock, and
flee away, for that is I. Or keep me lovely, and adore, knowing all evil
centred in my spirit, for that is I. Now, Leo, thou has