they had hospitals, and during the long and severe winters, when
the Tribes of the Mountain slopes were often driven to the verge of
starvation, gave liberally to the destitute from their stores of food.

Leo liked to be with Ayesha continually, so we spent each evening in her
company, and much of the day also, until she found that this inactivity
told upon him who for years had been accustomed to endure every rigour
of climate in the open air. After this came home to her--although she
was always haunted by terror lest any accident should befall him--Ayesha
insisted upon his going out to kill the wild sheep and the ibex, which
lived in numbers on the mountain ridges, placing him in the charge of
the chiefs and huntsmen of the Tribes, with whom thus he became well
acquainted. In this exercise, however, I accompanied him but rarely, as,
if used too much, my arm still gave me pain.

Once indeed such an accident did happen. I was seated in the garden
with Ayesha and watching her. Her head rested on her hand, and she was
looking with her wide eyes, across which the swift thoughts passed
like clouds over a windy sky, or dreams through the mind of a
sleeper--looking out vacantly towards the mountain snows. Seen thus her
loveliness was inexpressible, amazing; merely to gaze upon it was an
intoxication. Contemplating it, I understood indeed that, like to that
of the fabled Helen, this gift of hers alone--and it was but one of
many--must have caused infinite sorrows, had she ever been permitted to
display it to the world. It would have driven humanity to madness: the
men with longings and the women with jealousy and hate.

And yet in what did her surpassing beauty lie? Ayesha's face and form
were perfect, it is true; but so are those of some other women. Not in
these then did it live alone, but rather, I think, especially while what