eld it over my
head, and it seemed to me that something flowed from it that chilled
me back to common sense, and a knowledge of propriety and the domestic
virtues.

"Enough of this wanton folly," she said with a touch of sternness.
"Listen, Holly. Thou art a good and honest man, and I fain would spare
thee; but, oh! it is so hard for woman to be merciful. I have said I am
not for thee, therefore let thy thoughts pass by me like an idle wind,
and the dust of thy imagination sink again into the depths--well, of
despair, if thou wilt. Thou dost not know me, Holly. Hadst thou seen me
but ten hours past when my passion seized me, thou hadst shrunk from me
in fear and trembling. I am of many moods, and, like the water in that
vessel, I reflect many things; but they pass, my Holly; they pass, and
are forgotten. Only the water is the water still, and I still am I, and
that which maketh the water maketh it, and that which maketh me maketh
me, nor can my quality be altered. Therefore, pay no heed to what I
seem, seeing that thou canst not know what I am. If thou troublest me
again I will veil myself, and thou shalt behold my face no more."

I rose, and sank on the cushioned couch beside her, yet quivering with
emotion, though for a moment my mad passion had left me, as the leaves
of a tree quiver still, although the gust be gone that stirred them. I
did not dare to tell her that I _had_ seen her in that deep and hellish
mood, muttering incantations to the fire in the tomb.

"So," she went on, "now eat some fruit; believe me, it is the only true
food for man. Oh, tell me of the philosophy of that Hebrew Messiah, who
came after me, and who thou sayest doth now rule Rome, and Greece, and
Egypt, and the barbarians beyond. It must have been a strange philosophy
that He taught, for in my day the peoples would have naught of our
philosophies. Revel and lust and drink, blood and cold steel, and the
shock of men gathered in the battle--these were the canons of their
creeds."

I had recovered myself a little by now, and, feeling bitterly ashamed of
the weakness into which I had been betrayed, I did my best to expound
to her the doctrines of Christianity, to which, however, with the single
exception of our conception of Heaven and Hell, I found that she paid
but scant attention, her interest being all directed towards the Man
who taught them. Also I told her that among her own people, the Arabs,
another prophet, one Mohammed, had arisen