hstanding his heart-searchings of the previous night, he did with
more alacrity and fervour than in strictness courtesy required.

She laid her white hand on his head, and looked him fondly in the eyes.
"Dost thou wonder, my Kallikrates," she said, "when thou shalt call me
all thine own, and when we shall of a truth be for one another and to
one another? I will tell thee. First, must thou be even as I am, not
immortal indeed, for that I am not, but so cased and hardened against
the attacks of Time that his arrows shall glance from the armour of thy
vigorous life as the sunbeams glance from water. As yet I may not mate
with thee, for thou and I are different, and the very brightness of my
being would burn thee up, and perchance destroy thee. Thou couldst not
even endure to look upon me for too long a time lest thine eyes should
ache, and thy senses swim, and therefore" (with a little nod) "shall
I presently veil myself again." (This by the way she did not do.) "No:
listen, thou shalt not be tried beyond endurance, for this very
evening, an hour before the sun goes down, shall we start hence, and
by to-morrow's dark, if all goes well, and the road is not lost to me,
which I pray it may not be, shall we stand in the place of Life, and
thou shalt bathe in the fire, and come forth glorified, as no man ever
was before thee, and then, Kallikrates, shalt thou call me wife, and I
will call thee husband."

Leo muttered something in answer to this astonishing statement, I do not
know what, and she laughed a little at his confusion, and went on.

"And thou, too, oh Holly; on thee also will I confer this boon, and then
of a truth shalt thou be evergreen, and this will I do--well, because
thou hast pleased me, Holly, for thou art not altogether a fool, like
most of the sons of men, and because, though thou hast a school of
philosophy as full of nonsense as those of the old days, yet hast thou
not forgotten how to turn a pretty phrase about a lady's eyes."

"Hulloa, old fellow!" whispered Leo, with a return of his old
cheerfulness, "have you been paying compliments? I should never have
thought it of you!"

"I thank thee, oh Ayesha," I replied, with as much dignity as I could
command, "but if there be such a place as thou dost describe, and if in
this strange place there may be found a fiery virtue that can hold off
Death when he comes to pluck us by the hand, yet would I none of it. For
me, oh Ayesha, the world has not proved so s