ad been
fulfilled and the rest was on the eve of a too terribly truthful
fulfilment; but for the events that fixed their prediction in my
mind--it may be in terms a little more precise than those actually
employed, though I have endeavoured to record these with conscientious
accuracy.

Led by Esmo, we passed along another gallery into the small chamber
where met the secret Council of the Order, and long and anxious were
the debates wherein the revelations of the dreamer were treated as
conveying the most certain and unquestionable warning. The first rays
of morning were stealing through the mists into the peristyle of our
host's dwelling before I re-entered Eveena's chamber. She was
slumbering, but restlessly, and so lightly that she sprang up at once
on my entrance. For a few moments all other thought was lost in the
delight of my return after an absence whose very length had alarmed
her, despite her father's previous assurance. But as at last she drew
back sufficiently to look into my face, its expression seemed to
startle and sadden her. The questions that sprang to her lips died
there, as she probably saw in my eyes a look not only of weariness and
perplexity, but of profound reluctance to speak of what had passed.
Expressing her sympathy only by look and touch, she began to unclasp
my robe at the throat, aware that my only wish was for rest, and
content to postpone her own anxiety and natural curiosity. Then, as
the golden sash which I had not removed met her sight, she looked up
for a moment with a glance of natural pride and fondness, intensely
gratified by the highly-prized honour paid to her husband; then bent
low and kissed my hand with the gesture wherewith the presence of a
superior is acknowledged by the members of the Order. "Used as my
earlier life was, Eveena, to the Eastern prostrations of my own world,
I hate all that recals them; and if I must accept, as I fulfil, these
forms in the Halls of the Zinta, let me never be reminded of them by
you."

CHAPTER XXVII - THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

If I could have endured to describe to Eveena the terrible trial
scene, that which occurred before she had the chance to question me
would have certainly sealed my lips. The past night had told upon me
as no fatigue, no anxiety, no disaster of my life on Earth had ever
done. I awoke faint and exhausted as a nervous valetudinarian, and I
suppose my feeling must have been plainly visible in my face, for
Eveena w