Ayesha's avenging self.'

"So she drank, and fell dead--but now. Look, her breast still quivers.
Afterwards, that old man would have murdered me, for, being roped, I
could not resist him, but the door burst in and thou camest. Spare him,
he is of her blood, and he loved her."

Then Leo sank back into the chair where we had discovered him bound, and
seemed to fall into a kind of torpor, for of a sudden he grew to look
like an old man.

"Thou art sick," said Ayesha anxiously. "Oros, thy medicine, the draught
I bade thee bring! Be swift, I say."

The priest bowed, and from some pocket in his ample robe produced a
phial which he opened and gave to Leo, saying--"Drink, my lord; this
stuff will give thee back thy health, for it is strong."

"The stronger the better," answered Leo, rousing himself, and with
something like his old, cheerful laugh. "I am thirsty who have touched
nothing since last night, and have fought hard and been carried far,
yes--and lived through that hellish storm."

Then he took the draught and emptied it. There must have been virtue
in that potion; at least, the change which it produced in him was
wonderful. Within a minute his eyes grew bright again, and the colour
returned into his cheeks.

"Thy medicines are very good, as I have learned of old," he said to
Ayesha; "but the best of all of them is to see thee safe and victorious
before me, and to know that I, who looked for death, yet live to greet
thee, my beloved. There is food," and he pointed to a board upon which
were meats, "say, may I eat of them, for I starve?"

"Aye," she answered softly, "eat, and, my Holly, eat thou also."

So we fell to, yes, we fell to and ate even in the presence of that dead
woman who looked so royal in her death; of the old magician who stood
there powerless, like a man petrified, and of Ayesha, the wondrous being
that could destroy an army with the fearful weapons which were servant
to her will.

Only Oros ate nothing, but remained where he was, smiling at us
benignantly, nor did Ayesha touch any food.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE YIELDING OF AYESHA

When I had satisfied myself, Leo was still at his meal, for loss of
blood or the effects of the tremendous nerve tonic which Ayesha ordered
to be administered to him, had made him ravenous.

I watched his face and became aware of a curious change in it, no
immediate change indeed, but one, I think, that had come upon him
gradually, although I only fully apprec