em mine eyes behold thee; when the soft
winds of evening blow, that my breath is on thy brow and when the
thunder rolls, that there am I riding on the lightnings and rushing with
the gale."

"Do you mean that you are the goddess Isis?" I asked, bewildered.
"Because if so why did you tell me that you were but her priestess?"

"Have it as thou wilt, Allan. All sounds do not reach thine ears; all
sights are not open to thy eyes and therefore thou art both half deaf
and blind. Perchance now that her shrines are dust and her worship is
forgot, some spark of the spirit of that immortal Lady whose chariot was
the moon, lingers on the earth in this woman's shape of mine, though her
essence dwells afar, and perchance her other name is Nature, my mother
and thine, O Allan. At the least hath not the World a soul--and of that
soul am I not mayhap a part, aye, and thou also? For the rest are not
the priest and the Divine he bows to, oft the same?"

It was on my lips to answer, Yes, if the priest is a knave or a
self-deceiver, but I did not.

"Farewell, Allan, and let Ayesha's benison go with thee. Safe shalt
thou reach thy home, for all is prepared to take thee hence, and thy
companions with thee. Safe shalt thou live for many a year, till thy
time comes, and then, perchance, thou wilt find those whom thou hast
lost more kind than they seemed to be to-night."

She paused awhile, then added,

"Hearken unto my last word! As I have said, much that I have told thee
may bear a double meaning, as is the way of parables, to be interpreted
as thou wilt. Yet one thing is true. I love a certain man, in the old
days named Kallikrates, to whom alone I am appointed by a divine decree,
and I await him here. Oh, shouldest thou find him in the world without,
tell him that Ayesha awaits him and grows weary in the waiting. Nay,
thou wilt never find him, since even if he be born again, by what token
would he be known to thee? Therefore I charge thee, keep my secrets
well, lest Ayesha's curse should fall on thee. While thou livest tell
naught of me to the world thou knowest. Dost thou swear to keep my
secrets, Allan?"

"I swear, Ayesha."

"I thank thee, Allan," she answered, and grew silent for a while.

At length Ayesha rose and drawing herself up to the full of her height,
stood there majestic. Next she beckoned to me to come near, for I too
had risen and left the dais.

I obeyed, and bending down she held her hands over me as though in