"Nay, Holly, cease to question me, for there are things of which I can
but speak to thee in figures and in parables, not to mock and bewilder
thee, but because I must. Interpret them as thou wilt. Still, Atene
thought me no mortal, since she told us that man and spirit may not
mate; and there are matters in which I let her judgment weigh with me,
as without doubt now, as in other lives, she and that old Shaman, her
uncle, have wisdom, aye, and foresight. So bid my lord press me no more
to wed him, for it gives me pain to say him nay--ah! thou knowest not
how much.

"Moreover, I will declare myself to thee, old friend; whatever else
I be, at least I am too womanly to listen to the pleadings of my best
beloved and not myself be moved. See, I have set a curb upon desire
and drawn it until my heart bleeds; but if he pursues me with continual
words and looks of burning love, who knoweth but that I shall kindle in
his flame and throw the reins of reason to the winds?

"Oh, then together we might race adown our passions' steep; together
dare the torrent that rages at its foot, and there perchance be whelmed
or torn asunder. Nay, nay, another space of journeying, but a little
space, and we reach the bridge my wisdom found, and cross it safely, and
beyond for ever ride on at ease through the happy meadows of our love."

Then she was silent, nor would she speak more upon the matter. Also--and
this was the worst of it--even now I was not sure that she told me the
truth, or, at any rate, all of it, for to Ayesha's mind truth seemed
many coloured as are the rays of light thrown from the different faces
of a cut jewel. We never could be certain which shade of it she was
pleased to present, who, whether by preference or of necessity, as