slumbers, O my love, and sweeter still thy dreams, for know, my soul
shall share them. I vow to thee that to-morrow we'll be happy, aye,
to-morrow without fail."

"Why will she not marry me at once?" asked Leo, when we were alone in
our chamber. "Because she is afraid," I answered.



CHAPTER XIX

LEO AND THE LEOPARD

During the weeks that followed these momentous days often and often I
wondered to myself whether a more truly wretched being had ever lived
than the woman, or the spirit, whom we knew as She, Hes, and Ayesha.
Whether in fact also, or in our imagination only, she had arisen from
the ashes of her hideous age into the full bloom of perpetual life and
beauty inconceivable.

These things at least were certain: Ayesha had achieved the secret of
an existence so enduring that for all human purposes it might be called
unending. Within certain limitations--such as her utter inability to
foresee the future--undoubtedly also, she was endued with powers that
can only be described as supernatural.

Her rule over the strange community amongst whom she lived was absolute;
indeed, its members regarded her as a goddess, and as such she was
worshipped. After marvellous adventures, the man who was her very life,
I might almost say her soul, whose being was so mysteriously intertwined