n the deep; yes, I,
whom even the lightnings and Nature's elemental powers must obey. But
thou shrinkest from the sight of death, and thou believest that Heaven
would be displeased because I make myself--or am chosen--the instrument
of Heaven. Well, so let it be, for thy will is mine, and therefore we
will tread a gentler path."

"And how wilt thou persuade the kings of the earth to place their crowns
upon thy head?" I asked, astonished.

"By causing their peoples to offer them to us," she answered suavely.
"Oh! Holly, Holly, how narrow is thy mind, how strained the quality of
thine imagination! Set its poor gates ajar, I pray, and bethink thee.
When we appear among men, scattering gold to satisfy their want, clad
in terrifying power, in dazzling beauty and in immortality of days, will
they not cry, 'Be ye our monarchs and rule over us!'"

"Perhaps," I answered dubiously, "but where wilt thou appear?"

She took a map of the eastern hemisphere which I had drawn and, placing
her finger upon Pekin, said--"There is the place that shall be our home
for some few centuries, say three, or five, or seven, should it take so
long to shape this people to my liking and our purposes. I have
chosen these Chinese because thou tellest me that their numbers are
uncountable, that they are brave, subtle, and patient, and though now
powerless because ill-ruled and untaught, able with their multitudes to
flood the little western nations. Therefore among them we will begin our
reign and for some few ages be at rest while they learn wisdom from us,
and thou, my Holly, makest their armies unconquerable and givest their
land good government, wealth, peace, and a new religion."

What the new religion was to be I did not ask. It seemed unnecessary,
since I was convinced that in practice it would prove a form of
Ayesha-worship, Indeed, my mind was so occupied with conjectures, some
of them quaint and absurd enough, as to what would happen at the first
appearance of Ayesha in China that I forgot this subsidiary development
of our future rule.

"And if the 'little western nations' will not wait to be flooded?"
suggested Leo with irritation, for her contemptuous tone angered him,
one of a prominent western nation. "If they combine, for instance, and
attack thee first?"

"Ah!" she said, with a flash of her eyes. "I have thought of it, and for
my part hope that it will chance, since then thou canst not blame me if
I put out my strength. Oh! then