ere, too,
are we wed, my husband, with the gloom for bridal canopy--wed till the
end of all things; here do we write our marriage vows upon the rushing
winds which shall bear them up to heaven, and round and continually
round this rolling world.

"And for a bridal gift I crown thee with my beauty's starry crown, and
enduring life, and wisdom without measure, and wealth that none can
count. Behold! the great ones of the earth shall creep about thy feet,
and its fair women shall cover up their eyes because of the shining
glory of thy countenance, and its wise ones shall be abased before thee.
Thou shalt read the hearts of men as an open writing, and hither and
thither shalt thou lead them as thy pleasure listeth. Like that old
Sphinx of Egypt shalt thou sit aloft from age to age, and ever shall
they cry to thee to solve the riddle of thy greatness that doth not pass
away, and ever shalt thou mock them with thy silence!

"Behold! once more I kiss thee, and by that kiss I give to thee dominion
over sea and earth, over the peasant in his hovel, over the monarch in
his palace halls, and cities crowned with towers, and those who breathe
therein. Where'er the sun shakes out his spears, and the lonesome waters
mirror up the moon, where'er storms roll, and Heaven's painted bows arch
in the sky--from the pure North clad in snows, across the middle spaces
of the world, to where the amorous South, lying like a bride upon her
blue couch of seas, breathes in sighs made sweet with the odour of
myrtles--there shall thy power pass and thy dominion find a home. Nor
sickness, nor icy-fingered fear, nor sorrow, and pale waste of form and
mind hovering ever o'er humanity, shall so much as shadow thee with the
shadow of their wings. As a God shalt thou be, holding good and evil in
the hollow of thy hand, and I, even I, I humble myself before thee.
Such is the power of Love, and such is the bridal gift I give unto thee,
Kallikrates, my Lord and Lord of All.

"And now it is done; now for thee I loose my virgin zone; and come
storm, come shine, come good, come evil, come life, come death, it
never, never can be undone. For, of a truth, that which is, is, and,
being done, is done for aye, and cannot be altered. I have said--Let us
hence, that all things may be accomplished in their order;" and, taking
one of the lamps, she advanced towards the end of the chamber that was
roofed in by the swaying stone, where she halted.

We followed her, and