contemplated me a while, then said,

"My friend, we part to meet no more in thy life's day. Often thou wilt
wonder concerning me, as to what in truth I am, and mayhap in the end
thy judgment will be to write me down some false and beauteous wanderer
who, rejected of the world or driven from it by her crimes, made
choice to rule among savages, playing the part of Oracle to that little
audience and telling strange tales to such few travellers as come her
way. Perhaps, indeed, I do play this part among many others, and if so,
thou wilt not judge me wrongly.

"Allan, in the old days, mariners who had sailed the northern seas, told
me that therein amidst mist and storm float mountains of ice, shed from
dizzy cliffs which are hid in darkness where no sun shines. They told
me also that whereas above the ocean's breast appears but a blue and
dazzling point, sunk beneath it is oft a whole frozen isle, invisible to
man.

"Such am I, Allan. Of my being thou seest but one little peak glittering
in light or crowned with storm, as heaven's moods sweep over it. But in
the depths beneath are hid its white and broad foundations, hollowed by
the seas of time to caverns and to palaces which my spirit doth inhabit.
So picture me, therefore, as wise and fair, but with a soul unknown, and
pray that in time to come thou mayest see it in its splendour.

"Hadst thou been other than thou art, I might have shown thee secrets,
making clear to thee the parable of much that I have told thee in
metaphor and varying fable, aye, and given thee great gifts of power
and enduring days of which thou knowest nothing. But of those who visit
shrines, O Allan, two things are required, worship and faith, since
without these the oracles are dumb and the healing waters will not flow.

"Now I, Ayesha, am a shrine; yet to me thou broughtest no worship until
I won it by a woman's trick, and in me thou hast no faith. Therefore for
thee the oracle will not speak and the waters of deliverance will not
flow. Yet I blame thee not, who art as thou wast made and the hard world
has shaped thee.

"And so we part: Think not I am far from thee because thou seest me not
in the days to come, since like that Isis whose majesty alone I still
exercise on earth, I, whom men name Ayesha, am in all things. I tell
thee that I am not One but Many and, being many, am both Here and
Everywhere. When thou standest beneath the sky at night and lookest on
the stars, remember that in th