e before her, and next, taking the golden snake with
both her hands, she bent the pure soft metal round his neck,
and when it was fast, deliberately kissed him on the brow and
called him her 'dear lord'.

'Thou seest,' she said, when the excited murmur of the spectators
had died away, addressing her sister as Sir Henry rose to his
feet, 'I have put my collar round the "wolf's" neck, and behold!
he shall be my watchdog, and that is my answer to thee, Queen
Sorais, my sister, and to those with thee. Fear not,' she went
on, smiling sweetly on her lover, and pointing to the golden
snake she had twined round his massive throat, 'if my yoke be
heavy, yet is it of pure gold, and it shall not gall thee.'

Then, turning to the audience, she continued in a clear proud
tone, 'Ay, Lady of the Night, Lords, Priests, and People here
gathered together, by this sign do I take the foreigner to husband,
even here in the face of you all. What, am I a Queen, and yet
not free to choose the man whom I will love? Then should I be
lower than the meanest girl in all my provinces. Nay, he hath
won my heart, and with it goes my hand, and throne, and all I
have -- ay, had he been a beggar instead of a great lord fairer
and stronger than any here, and having more wisdom and knowledge
of strange things, I had given him all, how much more so being
what he is!' And she took his hand and gazed proudly on him,
and holding it, stood there boldly facing the people. And such
was her sweetness and the power and dignity of her person, and
so beautiful she looked standing hand in hand there at her lover's
side, so sure of him and of herself, and so ready to risk all
things and endure all things for him, that most of those who
saw the sight, which I am sure no one of them will ever forget,
caught the fire from her eyes and the happy colour from her blushing
face, and cheered her like wild things. It was a bold stroke
for her to make, and it appealed to the imagination; but human
nature in Zu-Vendis, as elsewhere, loves that which is bold and
not afraid to break a rule, and is moreover peculiarly susceptible
to appeals to its poetical side.

And so the people cheered till the roof rang; but Sorais of the
Night stood there with downcast eyes, for she could not bear
to see her sister's triumph, which robbed her of the man whom
she had hoped to win, and in the awfulness of her jealous anger
she trembled and turned white like an aspen in the wind. I th