ough hitherto I have had no mind
that way. My true life has not yet begun. Its little space within this
world has been filled with thought and care for thee; in waiting till
thou wast born again, and during these last years of separation, until
thou didst return.

"But now a few more months, and the days of preparation past, endowed
with energy eternal, with all the wisdom of the ages, and with a
strength that can bend the mountains or turn the ocean from its bed,
and we begin to be. Oh! how I sicken for that hour when first, like twin
stars new to the firmament of heaven, we break in our immortal splendour
upon the astonished sight of men. It will please me, I tell thee,
Leo, it will please me, to see Powers, Principalities and Dominions,
marshalled by their kings and governors, bow themselves before our
thrones and humbly crave the liberty to do our will. At least," she
added, "it will please me for a little time, until we seek higher
things."

So she spoke, while the radiance upon her brow increased and spread
itself, gleaming above her like a golden fan, and her slumbrous eyes
took fire from it till, to my thought, they became glowing mirrors in
which I saw pomp enthroned and suppliant peoples pass.

"And how," asked Leo, with something like a groan--for this vision of
universal rule viewed from afar did not seem to charm him--"how, Ayesha,
wilt thou bring these things about?"

"How, my Leo? Why, easily enough. For many nights I have listened to
the wise discourses of our Holly here, at least he thinks them wise who
still has so much to learn, and pored over his crooked maps, comparing
them with those that are written in my memory, who of late have had
no time for the study of such little matters. Also I have weighed and
pondered your reports of the races of this world; their various follies,
their futile struggling for wealth and small supremacies, and I have
determined that it would be wise and kind to weld them to one whole,
setting ourselves at the head of them to direct their destinies, and
cause wars, sickness, and poverty to cease, so that these creatures of
a little day (ephemeridae was the word she used) may live happy from the
cradle to the grave.

"Now, were it not because of thy strange shrinking from bloodshed,
however politic and needful--for my Leo, as yet thou art no true
philosopher--this were quickly done, since I can command a weapon which
would crush their armouries and whelm their navies i