Part 11 (1/2)
”I know not English, which doubtless is soe that has arisen since I left the world Perhaps later you shall teach it to er, because you believe nothing that passes my lips and yet do not dare to say so”
”How can I believe one, Ayesha, who if I understand aright, speaks of having seen a certain bath two thousand years ago, whereas one hundred years are the full days of ive me therefore if I cannot believe what I know to be untrue”
Now I thought that she would be very angry and was sorry that I had spoken But as it happened she was not
”You ive e,” she said, ”who have been cringed to for so long Indeed, I know that you are brave, who have heard how you bore yourself in the fight yesterday, and much else about you I think that we shall be friends, but-seek no more”
”What else should I seek, Ayesha?” I asked innocently
”Now you are lying again,” she said, ”who knoell that no man who is a man sees a wo whether, should he desire it, she could co”
”Which at least is not possible if she has lived two thousand years Then naturally she would prefer to wear a veil,” I said boldly, seeking to avoid the argu me
”Ah!” she answered, ”the little yellow ht into your heart, I think Oh, do not trouble as to how I know it, who have h So a woman who has lived two thousand years must be hideous and wrinkled,have fled from her; of that you, the wise man, are sure Very well Now you tempt me to do what I had determined I would not do and you shall pluck the fruit of that tree of curiosity which grows so fast within you Look, Allan, and say whether I ah I have lived two thousand years upon the earth and mayhapto her veil, so that for a moment-only one moment-her face was revealed, after which the veil fell into its place
I looked, I saw, and if that chair had lacked a back I believe that I should have fallen out of it to the ground As for what I saell, it cannot be described, at any rate by lory
Everyhis ideas of it perhaps on that of some woman he has met who chanced to take his fancy, with a few accessories froarnishination At any rate I have, and here was that perfect beauty ht of it the senses reeled And yet I repeat that it is not to be described
I do not knohat the nose or the lips were like; in fact, all that I can remember with distinctness is the splendour of the eyes, of which I had caught soht Oh, they ondrous, those eyes, but I cannot tell their colour save that the groundwork of them was black Moreover they seemed to be more than eyes as we understand them They were indeed s of the soul, out of which looked thought and majesty and infinite wisdom, mixed with all the allureine in wo at once If this marvellous creature expected that the revelation of her splendour was going to make me her slave; to cause me to fall in love with her, as it is called, well, she must have been disappointed, for it had no such effect It frightened and in a sense humbled me, that is all, for I feltthat was not hu alien to me as a man, which I could fear and even adore as humanity would adore that which is Divine, but hich I had no desire tovery different? I did not know, I only knew that it was not forfor a star to set within my lantern
I think that she felt this, felt that her stroke had missed, as the French say, that is if she meant to strike at all at this ed voice, one with a suspicion of chill in it that she said with a little laugh, ”Do you admit now, Allan, that a woman may be old and still remain fair and unwrinkled?”
”I ad so much that I could hardly speak with steadiness, ”that a wo that the e, of which I know nothing I would add this, Ayesha, that I thank you very lory that is hid beneath your veil”
”Why?” she asked, and I thought that I detected curiosity in her question
”For this reason, Ayesha Now there is no fear ofyou in such a fashi+on as you seeo As soon would ain her silver loveliness through heaven”
”The e that you should coly ”Do you know that the ypt and that her name was Isis and-well, once I had to do with Isis? Perhaps you were there and knew it, since iven to most of us I ht as you do, Allan Many, on the contrary, love and seek to win the Divine”
”So do I at a distance, Ayesha, but to coht be consumed”
”You have wisdom,” she replied, not without a note of admiration in her voice ”The moths are few that fear the flame, but those are the moths which live Also I think that you have scorched your wings before and learned that fire hurts Indeed, now I reh which you have flown, Allan, though all of them are dead ashes now, or shi+ne elsewhere Two burned in your youth when a certain lady died to save you, a great woman that, is it not so? And the third, ah! she was fire indeed, though of a copper hue What was her na to do with the wind, yes, with the hen it wails”
I stared at her Was this Maain in a secret place in the heart of Africa? And how the deuce did she know anything about Maaas? No, it was not possible, for she had never seen them out ofvoice, ”perhaps once again you disbelieve, Allan, whose cynic mind is so hard to open to new truths Well, shall I show you the faces of these three? I can,” and she waved her hand towards soht of her in the shadow-it looked like a crystal basin ”But ould it serve when you who know them so well, believed that I drew their pictures out of your own soul? Also perchance but one face would appear and that one strange to you [Lady Ragnall perhaps?-JB]
”Have you heard, Allan, that a the wise some hold that not all of us is visible at once here on earth within the same house of flesh; that the whole self in its home above, separates itself into sundry parts, each of which walks the earth in different forment of life's circle that can never be dissolved and ain at last?”
I shookof the sort
”You have still h doubtless there are so voice ”Well, I hold that this doctrine is built upon a rock of truth; also,” she added after studying me for a minute, ”that in your case these three women do not complete that circle I think there is a fourth who as yet is strange to you in this life, though you have known her well enough in others”
I groaned, i that she alluded to herself, which was foolish of me, for at once she read h, ”No, no, not the humble slave who sits before you, whom, as you have told ht to you in offering, as in the old days was done at the courts of the great kings of the East O fool, fool! who hold yourself so strong and do not know that if I chose, before yon shadow hadyou to ht be suffered to kissof you not to choose, Ayesha, since I think that when there is work to be done by both of us, we shall findto kiss a garht you to snatch away”
At these words her whole attitude seee I could see her lovely shape brace itself up, as it were, beneath her robes and felt in soed; that it had rid itself of ht, was directed upon some new objective
”Work to be done,” she repeated afterit to my mind, since the hours pass and that work presses Also I think there is a bargain to be ains, even if they be not written on a roll and signed and sealed Why do you coht? Say it and truthfully, for though I h at lies and pass them by when they have to do with the eternal sword-play which Nature decrees betweendown the swords, seek arree too well, when they have to do with policy and high purpose and ae them upon the liar”
Now I hesitated, as what I had to tell her seemed so foolish, indeed so insane, while she waited patiently as though to giveat last because I must, I said, ”I come to ask you, Ayesha, to show me the dead, if the dead still live elsewhere”
”And who told you, Allan, that I could show you the dead, if they are not truly dead? There is but one, I think, and if you are his ether of this business”
”What token?” I asked innocently, though I guessed her reat eyes, for I felt, and indeed saw theh the veil, then answered, ”I think-nay, letfrom the couch, she bent her heard over the tripod that I have described, and stared into what seehtening herself presently, ”it is a hideous thing enough, the carving of an abortion of a man such as no woman would care to look on lest her babe should bear its sta also that has virtues for hi tells me that it is dyed with the blood of one who loved you If you have it, let it be revealed, since without it I do not talk with you of these dead you seek”
Now I drew Zikali's talis-place and held it towards her
”Give it toseemed to warn me not to do so
”Nay,” I answered, ”he who lent ency and to save others, I ht and day till I returned it to his hand, saying that if I parted from it fortune would desert me I believe none of this talk and tried to be rid of it, whereon death drew near to me from a snake, such a snake as I see you wear about you, which doubtless also has poison in its fangs, if of another sort, Ayesha”
”Draw near,” she said, ”and let me look Man, be not afraid”
So I rose fro secretly that no one would see me in that ridiculous position, which the ht misinterpret I admit, however, that it proved to have coh the veil I saw herof the pure outline of her classic face; also the fragrance of her hair onderful
She took the talisman in her hand and examined it closely
”I have heard of this char has power,” she said, ”for I can feel it running through my veins, also that it is a shi+eld of defence to him ears it Yes, and now I understand what perplexed me somewhat, na-but let that matter be The wisdom was not your own, but another's, that is all Yes, the wisdom of one whose years have borne him beyond the shafts that fly fro ness Tell ave it to you?”
”Yes, Ayesha, the very picture, as I think, carved by hih he said that it is ancient, and others tell that it has been known in the land for centuries”
”So perchance has he,” she answered drily, ”since so Now tell me this wizard's names Nay, wait awhile for I would prove that indeed you are his s, Allan You can read Arabic, can you not?”
”A little,” I answered
Then from a stool at her side she took paper, or rather papyrus and a reed pen, and on her knee wrote soave to me folded up
”Now tell me the names,” she said, ”and then let us see if they tally hat I have written, for if so you are a true man, not a mere wanderer or a spy”