thee through yonder searcher
of the stars, thy uncle, to meet these guests of mine and bring them
straight to my shrine? Tell me, for I seek to know, how comes it that
thou didst disobey me?"

"Have then thy desire," answered Atene in a new and earnest voice,
devoid now of bitterness and falsehood. "I disobeyed because that man is
not thine, but mine, and no other woman's; because I love him and have
loved him from of old. Aye, since first our souls sprang into life I
have loved him, as he has loved me. My own heart tells me so; the magic
of my uncle here tells me so, though how and where and when these things
have been I know not. Therefore I come to thee, Mother of Mysteries,
Guardian of the secrets of the past, to learn the truth. At least _thou_
canst not lie at thine own altar, and I charge thee, by the dread name
of that Power to which thou also must render thy account, that thou
answer now and here.

"Who is this man to whom my being yearns? What has he been to me? What
has he to do with thee? Speak, O Oracle and make the secret clear.
Speak, I command, even though afterwards thou dost slay me--if thou
canst."

"Aye, speak! speak!" said Leo, "for know I am in sore suspense. I also
am bewildered by memories and rent with hopes and fears."

And I too echoed, "Speak!"

"Leo Vincey," asked the Hesea, after she had thought awhile, "whom dost
thou believe me to be?"

"I believe," he answered solemnly, "that thou art that Ayesha at whose
hands I died of old in the Caves of Kor in Africa. I believe thou art
that Ayesha whom not twenty years ago I found and loved in those same
Caves of Kor, and there saw perish miserably, swearing that thou wouldst
return again."

"See now, how madness can mislead a man," broke in Atene triumphantly.
"'Not twenty years ago,' he said, whereas I know well that more than
eighty summers have gone by since my grandsire in his youth saw this
same priestess sitting on the Mother's throne."

"And whom dost thou believe me to be, O Holly?" the Priestess asked,
taking no note of the Khania's words.

"What he believes I believe," I answered. "The dead come back to
life--sometimes. Yet alone thou knowest the truth, and by thee only it
can be revealed."

"Aye," she said, as though musing, "the dead come back to
life--sometimes--and in strange shape, and, mayhap, I know the truth.
To-morrow when yonder body is borne on high for burial we will speak
of it again. Till then rest you all, and