that slender thread of yak's hide from the face of the waterfall of ice
and herself remained unable to save him, or even to look forward for
a single moment and learn whether or no he was about to meet a hideous
death, in which event she must live on alone until in some dim age he
was born again.

Nor can her sorrows have ended with these more material fears, since
others as piercing must have haunted her. Imagine, for instance, the
agonies of her jealous heart when she knew her lover to be exposed to
the temptations incident to his solitary existence, and more especially
to those of her ancient rival Atene, who, by Ayesha's own account, had
once been his wife. Imagine also her fears lest time and human change
should do their natural work on him, so that by degrees the memory of
her wisdom and her strength, and the image of her loveliness faded from
his thought, and with them his desire for her company; thus leaving her
who had endured so long, forgotten and alone at last.

Truly, the Power that limited our perceptions did so in purest mercy,
for were it otherwise with us, our race would go mad and perish raving
in its terrors.

Thus it would seem that Ayesha, great tormented soul, thinking to win
life and love eternal and most glorious, was in truth but another blind
Pandora. From her stolen casket of beauty and super-human power had
leapt into her bosom, there to dwell unceasingly, a hundred torturing
demons, of whose wings mere mortal kind do but feel the far-off, icy
shadowing.

Yes; and that the parallel might be complete, Hope alone still lingered
in that rifled chest.