"Speak no such evil-omened words," she said, springing from the couch
and stamping her sandalled foot upon the ground in anger born of fear.
"Yet thou sayest truth; thou art unfortified against the accidents of
time and chance. Oh! horrible, horrible; thou mightest die again, and
leave me living."

"Then give me of thy life, Ayesha."

"That would I gladly, all of it, couldst thou but repay me with the boon
of death to come.

"Oh! ye poor mortals," she went on, with a sudden burst of passion; "ye
beseech your gods for the gift of many years, being ignorant that ye
would sow a seed within your breasts whence ye must garner ten thousand
miseries. Know ye not that this world is indeed the wide house of hell,
in whose chambers from time to time the spirit tarries a little while,
then, weary and aghast, speeds wailing to the peace that it has won.

"Think then what it is to live on here eternally and yet be human; to
age in soul and see our beloved die and pass to lands whither we may
not hope to follow; to wait while drop by drop the curse of the long
centuries falls upon our imperishable being, like water slow dripping on
a diamond that it cannot wear, till they be born anew forgetful of us,
and again sink from our helpless arms into the void unknowable.

"Think what it is to see the sins we sin, the tempting look, the word
idle or unkind--aye, even the selfish thought or struggle, multiplied
ten thousandfold and more eternal than ourselves, spring up upon the
universal bosom of the earth to be the bane of a million destinies,
whilst the everlasting Finger writes its endless count, and a cold