iated it now, after our short
separation. In addition to the thinness of which I have spoken, his
handsome countenance had grown more ethereal; his eyes were full of the
shadows of things that were to come.

His aspect pained me, I knew not why. It was no longer that of the
Leo with whom I was familiar, the deep-chested, mighty-limbed, jovial,
upright traveller, hunter and fighting-man who had chanced to love and
be loved of a spiritual power incarnated in a mould of perfect womanhood
and armed with all the might of Nature's self. These things were still
present indeed, but the man was changed, and I felt sure that this
change came from Ayesha, since the look upon his face had become
exceeding like to that which often hovered upon hers at rest.

She also was watching him, with speculative, dreamy eyes, till
presently, as some thought swept through her, I saw those eyes blaze up,
and the red blood pour to cheek and brow. Yes, the mighty Ayesha whose
dead, slain for him, lay strewn by the thousand on yonder plain, blushed
and trembled like a maiden at her first lover's kiss.

Leo rose from the table. "I would that I had been with thee in the
fray," he said.

"At the drift there was fighting," she answered, "afterwards none. My
ministers of Fire, Earth and Air smote, no more; I waked them from their
sleep and at my command they smote for thee and saved thee."

"Many lives to take for one man's safety," Leo said solemnly, as though
the thought pained him.

"Had they been millions and not thousands, I would have spent them every
one. On my head be their deaths, not on thine. Or rather on hers," and
she pointed to the dead Atene. "Yes, on hers who made this war. At least
she should thank me who have sent so royal a host to guard her through
the darkness."

"Yet it is terrible," said Leo, "to think of thee, beloved, red to the
hair with slaughter."

"What reck I?" she answered with a splendid pride. "Let their blood
suffice to wash the stain of thy blood from off these cruel hands that
once did murder thee."

"Who am I that I should blame thee?" Leo went on as though arguing
with himself, "I who but yesterday killed two men--to save myself from
treachery."

"Speak not of it," she exclaimed in cold rage. "I saw the place and,
Holly, thou knowest how I swore that a hundred lives should pay for
every drop of that dear blood of thine, and I, who lie not, have kept
the oath. Look now on that man who stands yonder struc