?' she said, smiling.

'Yes, ma'am.'

'Then see: I will go out of the cavern. Do not be afraid, but watch.'

She went slowly out. The moment she turned her back to go, the light
began to pale and fade; the moment she was out of their sight the place
was black as night, save that now the smoky yellow-red of their lamps,
which they thought had gone out long ago, cast a dusky glimmer around
them.

CHAPTER 7

What Is in a Name?

For a time that seemed to them long, the two men stood waiting, while
still the Mother of Light did not return. So long was she absent that
they began to grow anxious: how were they to find their way from the
natural hollows of the mountain crossed by goblin paths, if their lamps
should go out? To spend the night there would mean to sit and wait
until an earthquake rent the mountain, or the earth herself fell back
into the smelting furnace of the sun whence she had issued--for it was
all night and no faintest dawn in the bosom of the world.

So long did they wait unrevisited, that, had there not been two of
them, either would at length have concluded the vision a home-born
product of his own seething brain. And their lamps were going out, for
they grew redder and smokier! But they did not lose courage, for there
is a kind of capillary attraction in the facing of two souls, that
lifts faith quite beyond the level to which either could raise it
alone: they knew that they had seen the lady of emeralds, and it was to
give them their own desire that she had gone from them, and neither
would yield for a moment to the half doubts and half dreads that awoke
in his heart.

And still she who with her absence darkened their air did not return.
They grew weary, and sat down on the rocky floor, for wait they
would--indeed, wait they must. Each set his lamp by his knee, and
watched it die. Slowly it sank, dulled, looked lazy and stupid. But
ever as it sank and dulled, the image in his mind of the Lady of Light
grew stronger and clearer. Together the two lamps panted and
shuddered. First one, then the other went out, leaving for a moment a
great, red, evil-smelling snuff. Then all was the blackness of
darkness up to their very hearts and everywhere around them. Was it?
No. Far away--it looked miles away--shone one minute faint point of
green light--where, who could tell? They only knew that it shone. It
grew larger, and seemed to draw nearer, until at last, as they watched
with speec