in the utter solitude of space poured forth each to each
the tale of their lost life and long-departed glory. The white
light fell, and minute by minute the quiet shadows crept across
the grass-grown courts like the spirits of old priests haunting the
habitations of their worship--the white light fell, and the long shadows
grew till the beauty and grandeur of each scene and the untamed majesty
of its present Death seemed to sink into our very souls, and speak more
loudly than the shouts of armies concerning the pomp and splendour that
the grave had swallowed, and even memory had forgotten.

"Come," said Ayesha, after we had gazed and gazed, I know not for how
long, "and I will show you the stony flower of Loveliness and Wonder's
very crown, if yet it stands to mock time with its beauty and fill
the heart of man with longing for that which is behind the veil," and,
without waiting for an answer, she led us through two more pillared
courts into the inner shrine of the old fane.

And there, in the centre of the inmost court, that might have been some
fifty yards square, or a little more, we stood face to face with what
is perhaps the grandest allegorical work of Art that the genius of her
children has ever given to the world. For in the exact centre of the
court, placed upon a thick square slab of rock, was a huge round ball of
dark stone, some twenty feet in diameter, and standing on the ball was a
colossal winged figure of a beauty so entrancing and divine that when
I first gazed upon it, illuminated and shadowed as it was by the soft
light of the moon, my breath stood still, and for an instant my heart
ceased its beating.

The statue was hewn from marble so pure and white that even now, after
all those ages, it shone as the moonbeams danced upon it, and its height
was, I should say, a trifle over twenty feet. It was the winged figure
of a woman of such marvellous loveliness and delicacy of form that the
size seemed rather to add to than to detract from its so human and yet
more spiritual beauty. She was bending forward and poising herself upon
her half-spread wings as though to preserve her balance as she leant.
Her arms were outstretched like those of some woman about to embrace
one she dearly loved, while her whole attitude gave an impression of
the tenderest beseeching. Her perfect and most gracious form was naked,
save--and here came the extraordinary thing--the face, which was thinly
veiled, so that we could only