Zikali
want of me whose power he knows very well?"

"An oracle, the answer to a riddle, Ayesha."

"Then set it out another time. So you decide to see the dead, and this
old dwarf, who is a home of wisdom, desires an oracle from one who is
greater than he. Good. And what are you, or both of you, prepared to pay
for these boons? Know, Allan, that I am a merchant who sells my favours
dear. Tell me then, will you pay?"

"I think that it depends upon the price," I answered cautiously. "Set
out the price, Ayesha."

"Be not afraid, O cunning dealer," she mocked. "I do not ask your soul
or even that love of yours which you guard so jealously, since these
things I could take without the asking. Nay, I ask only what a brave and
honest man may give without shame: your help in war, and perhaps," she
added with a softer tone, "your friendship. I think, Allan, that I like
you well, perhaps because you remind me of another whom I knew long
ago."

I bowed at the compliment, feeling proud and pleased at the prospect of
a friendship with this wonderful and splendid creature, although I was
aware that it had many dangers. Then I sat still and waited. She also
waited, brooding.

"Listen," she said after a while, "I will tell you a story and when you
have heard it you shall answer, even if you do not believe it, but not
before. Does it please you to listen to something of the tale of my life
which I am moved to tell you, that you may know with whom you have to
deal?"

Again I bowed, thinking to myself that I knew nothing that would please
me more, who was eaten up with a devouring curiosity about this woman.

Now she rose from her couch and descending off the dais, began to walk
up and down the chamber. I say, to walk, but her movements were more
like the gliding of an eagle through the air or the motion of a swan
upon still water, so smooth were they and gracious. As she walked she
spoke in a low and thrilling voice.

"Listen," she said again, "and even if my story seems marvellous to you,
interrupt, and above all, mock me not, lest I should grow angry, which
might be ill for you. I am not as other women are, O Allan, who having
conquered the secrets of Nature," here I felt an intense desire to ask
what secrets, but remembered and held my tongue, "to my sorrow have
preserved my youth and beauty through many ages. Moreover in the past,
perhaps in payment for my sins, I have lived other lives of which some
memory remains with me