it in my heart, that though our love
shall be short, and little joy shall we have one of another, yet death
shall not end it. For, Odysseus, I am a daughter of the Gods, and though
I sleep and forget that which has been in my sleep, and though my shape
change as but now it seemed to change in the eyes of those ripe to die,
yet I die not. And for thee, though thou art mortal, death shall be but
as the short summer nights that mark off day from day. For thou shalt
live again, Odysseus, as thou hast lived before, and life by life we
shall meet and love till the end is come."

As the Wanderer listened he thought once more of that dream of Meriamun
the Queen, which the priest Rei had told him. But he said nothing of it
to Helen; for about the Queen and her words to him it seemed wisest not
to speak.

"It will be well to live, Lady, if life by life I find thee for a love."

"Life by life thou shalt find me, Odysseus, in this shape or in that
shalt thou find me--for beauty has many forms, and love has many
names--but thou shalt ever find me but to lose me again. I tell thee
that as but now thou wonnest thy way through the ranks of those who
watch me, the cloud lifted from my mind, and I remembered, and I
foresaw, and I knew why I, the loved of many, might never love in turn.
I knew then, Odysseus, that I am but the instrument of the Gods, who use
me for their ends. And I knew that I loved thee, and thee only, but with
a love that began before the birth-bed, and shall not be consumed by the
funeral flame."

"So be it, Lady," said the Wanderer, "for this I know, that never have
I loved woman or Goddess as I love thee, who art henceforth as the heart
in my breast, that without which I may not live."

"Now speak on," she said, "for such words as these are like music in my
ears."

"Ay, I will speak on. Short shall be our love, thou sayest, Lady, and my
own heart tells me that it is born to be brief of days. I know that now
I go on my last voyaging, and that death comes upon me from the water,
the swiftest death that may be. This then I would dare to ask: When
shall we twain be one? For if the hours of life be short, let us love
while we may."

Now Helen's golden hair fell before her eyes like the bride's veil, and
she was silent for a time. Then she spoke:

"Not now, and not while I dwell in this holy place may we be wed,
Odysseus, for so should we call down upon us the hate of Gods and men.
Tell me, then, where thou dwe