Page:Ayesha, the return of She (IA cu31924013476175).pdf/215

Rh I am named Leo Vincey, he answered.

Leo Vincey! I like the name, which to me well befits a man so goodly. And thou, the companion of—Leo Vincey?

I am named Horace Holly.

So. Then tell me, Leo Vincey and Horace Holly, what came ye so far to seek?

We looked at each other, and I said—

The tale is long and strange. O—but by what title must we address thee?

By the name which I bear here, Hes.

O Hes, I said, wondering what name she bore elsewhere.

Yet I desire to hear that tale, she went on, and to me her voice sounded eager. Nay, not all to-night, for I know that you both are weary; a little of it only. In sooth, Strangers, there is a sameness in this home of contemplations, and no heart can feed only on the past, if such a thing there be. Therefore I welcome a new history from the world without. Tell it me, thou, Leo, as briefly as thou wilt, so that thou tell the truth, for in the Presence of which I am a Minister, may nothing else be uttered.

Priestess, he said, in his curt fashion, I obey. Many years ago when I was young, my friend and foster-father and I, led by records of the past, travelled to a wild land, and there found a certain divine woman who had conquered time.

Then that woman must have been both aged and hideous.

I said, Priestess, that she had conquered time, not suffered it, for the gift of immortal youth was hers. Also she was not hideous; she was beauty itself.

Therefore stranger, thou didst worship her for her beauty's sake, as a man does.

I did not worship her; I loved her, which is another thing. The priest Oros here worships thee, whom he calls Mother. I loved that immortal woman.