uish. "I took him,
and I saved his life! Destroy me, then, if thou hast the power! I will
not give thee my husband--never--never!"

Ayesha made a movement so swift that I could scarcely follow it, but it
seemed to me that she lightly struck the poor girl upon the head with
her hand. I looked at Ustane, and then staggered back in horror, for
there upon her hair, right across her bronze-like tresses, were three
finger-marks _white as snow_. As for the girl herself, she had put her
hands to her head, and was looking dazed.

"Great heavens!" I said, perfectly aghast at this dreadful manifestation
of human power; but _She_ did but laugh a little.

"Thou thinkest, poor ignorant fool," she said to the bewildered woman,
"that I have not the power to slay. Stay, there lies a mirror," and she
pointed to Leo's round shaving-glass that had been arranged by Job with
other things upon his portmanteau; "give it to this woman, my Holly, and
let her see that which lies across her hair, and whether or no I have
power to slay."

I picked up the glass, and held it before Ustane's eyes. She gazed, then
felt at her hair, then gazed again, and then sank upon the ground with a
sort of sob.

"Now, wilt thou go, or must I strike a second time?" asked Ayesha, in
mockery. "Look, I have set my seal upon thee so that I may know thee
till thy hair is all as white as it. If I see thy face again, be sure,
too, that thy bones shall soon be whiter than my mark upon thy hair."

Utterly awed and broken down, the poor creature rose, and, marked with
that awful mark, crept from the room, sobbing bitterly.

"Look not so frighted, my Holly," said Ayesha, when she had gone. "I
tell thee I deal not in magic--there is no such thing. 'Tis only a force
that thou dost not understand. I marked her to strike terror to her
heart, else must I have slain her. And now I will bid my servants to
bear my Lord Kallikrates to a chamber near mine own, that I may watch
over him, and be ready to greet him when he wakes; and thither, too,
shalt thou come, my Holly, and the white man, thy servant. But one thing
remember at thy peril. Naught shalt thou say to Kallikrates as to how
this woman went, and as little as may be of me. Now, I have warned
thee!" and she slid away to give her orders, leaving me more absolutely
confounded than ever. Indeed, so bewildered was I, and racked and torn
with such a succession of various emotions, that I began to think that
I must be going ma