know that the doom of
Isis fell upon the lost Kallikrates, her priest forsworn, and that on me
also fell her doom, who must dwell here, dead yet living, till he return
again and the play begins afresh.

"Stranger," she went on in a softer voice, "perchance your faith,
whate'er it be, parades a hell to terrify its worshippers and give
strength to the arms of its prophesying priests, who swear they hold
the keys of doom or of the eternal joys. I see you sign assent" (I had
nodded at her extremely accurate guess) "and therefore can understand
that in such a hell as this, here upon the earth I have dwelt for some
two thousand years, expiating the crime of Powers above me whereof I
am but the hand and instrument, since those Powers which decreed that I
should love, decree also that I must avenge that love."

She sank down upon the couch as though exhausted by emotion, of which
I could only guess the reasons, hiding her face in her hands. Presently
she let them fall again and continued,

"Of these woes ask me no more. They sleep till the hour of their
resurrection, which I think draws nigh; indeed, I thought that you
perchance----But let that be. 'Twas near the mark; nearer, Allan, than
you know, not in it! Therefore leave them to their sleep as I would if
I might--ah! if I might, whose companions they are throughout the weary
ages. Alas! that through the secret which was revealed to me I remain
undying on the earth who in death might perhaps have found a rest,
and being human although half divine, must still busy myself with the
affairs of earth.

"Look you, Wanderer, after that which was fated had happened and I
remained in my agony of solitude and sorrow, after, too, I had drunk
of the cup of enduring life and like the Prometheus of old fable, found
myself bound to this changeless rock, whereon day by day the vultures
of remorse tear out my living heart which in the watches of the night is
ever doomed to grow again within my woman's breast, I was plunged into
petty troubles of the flesh, aye and welcomed them because their irk at
times gave me forgetfulness. When the savage dwellers in this land came
to know that a mighty one had arisen among them who was the servant of
the Lady of the Moon, those of them who still worshipped their goddess
Lulala, gathered themselves about me, while those of them who worshipped
Rezu sought to overthrow me.

"'Here,' they said, 'is the goddess Lulala come to earth. In the name
of Rez