all thine heart thou dost worship me."

She paused, and the strange tenderness in her voice seemed to hover
round us like a memory. I know that the sound of it moved me more even
than her words, it was so very human--so very womanly. Leo, too, was
strangely touched. Hitherto he had been fascinated against his better
judgment, something as a bird is fascinated by a snake, but now I think
that all this passed away, and he realised that he really loved this
strange and glorious creature, as, alas! I loved her also. At any rate,
I saw his eyes fill with tears, and he stepped swiftly to her and undid
the gauzy veil, and then took her by the hand, and, gazing into her deep
eyes, said aloud--

"Ayesha, I love thee with all my heart, and so far as forgiveness is
possible I forgive thee the death of Ustane. For the rest, it is between
thee and thy Maker; I know naught of it. I only know that I love thee as
I never loved before, and that I will cleave to thee to the end."

"Now," answered Ayesha, with proud humility--"now when my lord doth
speak thus royally and give with so free a hand, it cannot become me to
lag behind in words, and be beggared of my generosity. Behold!" and she
took his hand and placed it upon her shapely head, and then bent herself
slowly down till one knee for an instant touched the ground--"Behold! in
token of submission do I bow me to my lord! Behold!" and she kissed him
on the lips, "in token of my wifely love do I kiss my lord. Behold!"
and she laid her hand upon his heart, "by the sin I sinned, by my lonely
centuries of waiting wherewith it was wiped out, by the great love
wherewith I love, and by the Spirit--the Eternal Thing that doth beget
all life, from whom it ebbs, to whom it doth return again--I swear:--

"I swear, even in this most holy hour of completed Womanhood, that I
will abandon Evil and cherish Good. I swear that I will be ever guided
by thy voice in the straightest path of Duty. I swear that I will eschew
Ambition, and through all my length of endless days set Wisdom over me
as a guiding star to lead me unto Truth and a knowledge of the Right.
I swear also that I will honour and will cherish thee, Kallikrates, who
hast been swept by the wave of time back into my arms, ay, till the very
end, come it soon or late. I swear--nay, I will swear no more, for what
are words? Yet shalt thou learn that Ayesha hath no false tongue.

"So I have sworn, and thou, my Holly, art witness to my oath. H