soul and stretch out their hands to grasp there is
all. Even Bastin will tell you this."

"But," I said, "life is short. Those worlds are far away, and you are
near."

She became wonderful, mysterious.

"Near I am far," she said; "and far I am near, if only this love of
yours is strong enough to follow and to clasp. And, Humphrey, it needs
strength, for here I am afraid that it will bear little of such fruit as
men desire to pluck."

Again terror took hold of me, and I looked at her, for I did not know
what to say or ask.

"Listen," she went on. "Already my father has offered me to you in
marriage, has he not, but at a price which you do not understand?
Believe me, it is one that you should never pay, since the rule of the
world can be too dearly bought by the slaughter of half the world. And
if you would pay it, I cannot."

"But this is madness!" I exclaimed. "Your father has no powers over our
earth."

"I would that I could think so, Humphrey. I tell you that he has powers
and that it is his purpose to use them as he has done before. You, too,
he would use, and me."

"And, if so, Yva, we are lords of ourselves. Let us take each other
while we may. Bastin is a priest."

"Lords of ourselves! Why, for ought I know, at this very moment Oro
watches us in his thought and laughs. Only in death, Humphrey, shall we
pass beyond his reach and become lords of ourselves."

"It is monstrous!" I cried. "There is the boat, let us fly away."

"What boat can bear us out of stretch of the arm of the old god of my
people, Fate, whereof Oro is the high priest? Nay, here we must wait our
doom."

"Doom," I said--"doom? What then is about to happen?"

"A terrible thing, as I think, Humphrey. Or, rather, it will not
happen."

"Why not, if it must?"

"Beloved," she whispered, "Bastin has expounded to me a new faith
whereof the master-word is Sacrifice. The terrible thing will not happen
because of sacrifice! Ask me no more."

She mused a while, seated there in the moonlight upon the ancient altar
of sacrifice, the veil she wore falling about her face and making
her mysterious. Then she threw it back, showing her lovely eyes and
glittering hair, and laughed.

"We have still an earthly hour," she said; "therefore let us forget the
far, dead past and the eternities to come and be joyful in that hour.
Now throw your arms about me and I will tell you strange stories of lost
days, and you shall look into my eyes and learn wis