in
that Heaven of thine, Allan, for there perchance he dwells?"

I shook my head and tried to think the thing out while all the time
those wonderful eyes of hers seemed to draw the soul from me. It seemed
to me that she bent forward and held up her face to me. Then I lost my
reason and also bent forward. Yes, she made me mad, and, save her, I
forgot all.

Swiftly she placed her hand upon my heart, saying,

"Stay! What meanest thou? Dost love me, Allan?"

"I think so--that is--yes," I answered.

She sank back upon the couch away from me and began to laugh very
softly.

"What words are these," she said, "that they pass thy lips so easily and
so unmeant, perchance from long practice? Oh! Allan, I am astonished.
Art thou the same man who some few days ago told me, and this unasked,
that as soon wouldst thou think of courting the moon as of courting me?
Art thou he who not a minute gone swore proudly that never had his heart
and his lips wandered from certain angels whither they should not? And
now, and now----?"

I coloured to my eyes and rose, muttering,

"Let me be gone!"

"Nay, Allan, why? I see no mark here," and she held up her hand,
scanning it carefully. "Thou art too much what thou wert before, except
perhaps in thy soul, which is invisible," she added with a touch of
malice. "Nor am I angry with thee; indeed, hadst thou not tried to charm
away my woe, I should have thought but poorly of thee as a man. There
let it rest and be forgotten--or remembered as thou wilt. Still, in
answer to thy words concerning my Kallikrates, what of those adored ones
that, according to thy tale, but now thou didst find again in a place of
light? Because they seemed faithless, shouldst thou be faithless also?
Shame on thee, thou fickle Allan!"

She paused, waiting for me to speak.

Well, I could not. I had nothing to say who was utterly disgraced and
overwhelmed.

"Thou thinkest, Allan," she went on, "that I have cast my net about
thee, and this is true. Learn wisdom from it, Allan, and never again
defy a woman--that is, if she be fair, for then she is stronger than
thou art, since Nature for its own purpose made her so. Whatever I have
done by tears, that ancient artifice of my sex, as in other ways, is for
thy instruction, Allan, that thou mayest benefit thereby."

Again I sprang up, uttering an English exclamation which I trust Ayesha
did not understand, and again she motioned to me to be seated, saying,

"Nay, leav