Part 19 (1/2)
”I think so-that is-yes,” I answered
She sank back upon the couch away froh very softly
”What words are these,” she said, ”that they pass thy lips so easily and so un practice? Oh! Allan, I ao told me, and this unasked, that as soon wouldst thou think of courting the one swore proudly that never had his heart and his lips wandered froels whither they should not? And now, and now--?”
I coloured to one!”
”Nay, Allan, why? I see noit carefully ”Thou art too much what thou wert before, except perhaps in thy soul, which is invisible,” she added with a touch of ry with thee; indeed, hadst thou not tried to charht but poorly of thee as a otten-or remeto thy tale, but now thou didst find again in a place of light? Because they seemed faithless, shouldst thou be faithless also? Sha forto say as utterly disgraced and overwhelmed
”Thou thinkest, Allan,” she went on, ”that I have cast my net about thee, and this is true Learn wisdoain defy a woer than thou art, since Nature for its own purpose made her so Whatever I have done by tears, that ancient artifice of my sex, as in other ways, is for thy instruction, Allan, that thouan English exclaain she , ”Nay, leave ht fancy of awind and for a breath made me dear to thee, has passed away, there reh, thinking of thyself alone, thou hast forgotten it, having been paid thine own fee, one is yet due to that old wizard in a far land who sent thee to visit Kor and me, as indeed he has re statement aroused me from my personal and painful pre-occupation and caused ain thou disbelievest me,” she said, with a little starovel on the ground and kiss my foot and babble nonsense to a woman sworn to another man, such as never for all thy days thou shalt think of without a blush of shame”
”Oh! no,” I broke in hurriedly, ”I assure you that you are mistaken I believe every word you have said, or say or will say; I do in truth”
”Now thou liest Well, what is oneso er affire--” and I paused
”It was to recall to reat enterprise of his will succeed, the details of which he says thou canst tell et away froerous topics, I narrated to her as briefly and clearly as I could, the history of the old witch-doctor's feud with the Royal House of Zululand She listened, taking in every word, and said, ”So now he yearns to knohether he will conquer or be conquered; and that is why he sent, or thinks that he sent thee on this journey, not for thy sake, Allan, but for his own I cannot tell thee, for what have I do to with the finish of this petty business, which to hi the Axe-Bearer here to rid htenof thy mind, I will try Set that bowl before me, Allan,” and she pointed to a marble tripod on which stood a basin half full of water, ”and co me what thou seest”
I obeyed her instructions and presently foundinto the water in the exact attitude of a person who is about to be shampooed
”This seems rather foolish,” I said abjectly, for at that moment I resembled the Queen of Sheba in one particular, if in no other, namely, that there was noat all”
”Look again,” she said, and as she spoke the water grew clouded Then on it appeared a picture I saw the interior of a Kaffir hut dile candle set in the neck of a bottle To the left of the door of the hut was a bedstead and on it lay stretched a wasted and dyingof the Zulus At the foot of the bed stood anotherover the bed, apparently whispering into the dying ure which I knew to be that of Zikali, Opener-of-Roads, whose glowing eyes were fixed upon the terrified and tortured face of Cetywayo All was as it happened afterwards, as I have written down in the book called ”Finished”
I described what I saw to Ayesha, and while I was doing so the picture vanished away, so that nothing remained save the clear water in the marble bowl The story did not seem to interest her; indeed, she leaned back and yawned a little
”Thy vision is good, Allan,” she said indifferently, ”and wide also, since thou canst see what passes in the sun or distant stars, and pictures of things to be in the water, to say nothing of other pictures in a woe business concerns me not and of it I want to know no more Yet it would appear that here the old wizard who is thy friend, has the answer that he desires For there in the picture the king he hates lies dying while he hisses in his ear and thou dost watch the end What more can he seek? Tell him it when ye meet, and tell him also it is my will that in future he should trouble me less, since I love not to be wakened froe vapourings Indeed, he presuh of him and his dark plots Ye have your desires, all of you, and are paid in full”
”Over-paid, perhaps,” I said with a sigh
”Ah, Allan, I think that Lesson thou hast learned pleases thee but little Well, be co is common Hast never heard that there is but one morsel more bitter to the taste than desire denied, namely, desire fulfilled? Believe me that there can be no happiness for man until he attains a land where all desire is dead”
”That is what the Buddha preaches, Ayesha”
”Aye, I remember the doctrines of that wise ate of Truth, one key only, for,man must know desires, since without thes, hopes, fears, aye and of life itself, the race must die, which is not the will of the Lord of Life who needs a nursery for his servant's souls, wherein his swords of Good and Ill shall shape them to his pattern So it comes about, Allan, that e think the worst is oft the best for us, and with that knowledge, if we are wise, let us assuage our bitterness and wipe away our tears”
”I have often thought that,” I said
”I doubt it not, Allan, since though it has pleased me to make a jest of thee, I know that thou hast thy share of wisdoather in thy few short years I know, too, that thy heart is good and aspires high, and Friend-well, I find in thee a friend indeed, as I think not for the first time, nor certainly for the last Mark, Allan, what I say, not a lover, but a friend, which is higher far For when passion dies with the passing of the flesh, if there be no friendshi+p ill reot? Aye, hoould those lovers meet elsewhere ere never more than lovers? With weariness, I hold, as they stared into each other's eust
”Therefore the ill seek to turn those hom Fate mates them into friends, since otherwise soon they will be lost for aye More, if they are wiser still, having made them friends, they will suffer them to find lovers where they will Good maxims, are they not? Yet hard to follow, or so, perchance, thou thinkest the her chin upon her hand and staring down the hall Thus the aspect of her face was different froer had it the allure of Aphrodite or the ht it have been that of Athene herself So wise it seeht, that alhtened me
What was this woman's true story, I wondered, what her real self, and what the sue? Perhaps it was accident, or perhaps, again, she guessed my mind At any rate her next words see her eyes she contemplated me a while, then said, ”My friend, we part to meet noment will be to write me down some false and beauteous wanderer who, rejected of the world or driven fro the part of Oracle to that little audience and telling strange tales to such few travellers as co ly
”Allan, in the old days, mariners who had sailed the northern seas, told me that therein amidst mist and storm float mountains of ice, shed from dizzy cliffs which are hid in darkness where no sun shi+nes They told me also that whereas above the ocean's breast appears but a blue and dazzling point, sunk beneath it is oft a whole frozen isle, invisible tothou seest but one little peak glittering in light or croith storm, as heaven's moods sweep over it But in the depths beneath are hid its white and broad foundations, hollowed by the seas of time to caverns and to palaces which my spirit doth inhabit So picture me, therefore, as wise and fair, but with a soul unknown, and pray that in time to come thou mayest see it in its splendour
”Hadst thou been other than thou art, Iclear to thee the parable offable, aye, and given thee great gifts of power and enduring days of which thou knowest nothing But of those who visit shrines, O Allan, two things are required, worshi+p and faith, since without these the oracles are du waters will not flow
”Now I, Ayesha, ahtest no worshi+p until I won it by a woman's trick, and in me thou hast no faith Therefore for thee the oracle will not speak and the waters of deliverance will not flow Yet I blame thee not, who art as thou wast made and the hard world has shaped thee
”And so we part: Think not I am far from thee because thou seest me not in the days to come, since like that Isis whose majesty alone I still exercise on earth, I, whos I tell thee that I a many, am both Here and Everywhere When thou standest beneath the sky at night and lookest on the stars, remember that in the blow, that my breath is on thy brow and when the thunder rolls, that there aale”
”Do you mean that you are the Goddess Isis?” I asked, bewildered ”Because if so why did you tell me that you were but her priestess?”
”Have it as thou wilt, Allan All sounds do not reach thine ears; all sights are not open to thy eyes and therefore thou art both half deaf and blind Perchance now that her shrines are dust and her worshi+p is forgot, some spark of the spirit of that iers on the earth in this woh her essence dwells afar, and perchance her other name is Nature, my mother and thine, O Allan At the least hath not the World a soul-and of that soul am I not mayhap a part, aye, and thou also? For the rest are not the priest and the Divine he bows to, oft the same?”
It was on my lips to answer, Yes, if the priest is a knave or a self-deceiver, but I did not
”Farewell, Allan, and let Ayesha's benison go with thee Safe shalt thou reach thy home, for all is prepared to take thee hence, and thy companions with thee Safe shalt thou live for many a year, till thy time comes, and then, perchance, thou wilt find those whoht”
She paused awhile, then added, ”Hearken unto my last word! As I have said, , as is the way of parables, to be interpreted as thou wilt Yet one thing is true I love a certain man, in the old days named Kallikrates, to whom alone I am appointed by a divine decree, and I await him here Oh, shouldest thou find hiroeary in the waiting Nay, thou wilt never find hiain, by what token would he be known to thee? Therefore I charge thee, keep my secrets well, lest Ayesha's curse should fall on thee While thou livest tell naught of me to the world thou knowest Dost thou swear to keep my secrets, Allan?”
”I swear, Ayesha”
”I thank thee, Allan,” she answered, and grew silent for a while
At length Ayesha rose and drawing herself up to the full of her height, stood there majestic Next she beckoned to me to come near, for I too had risen and left the dais
I obeyed, and bending down she held her hands over , then pointed towards the curtains which at this moment were drawn asunder, by whom I do not know
I went and when I reached them, turned to look my last on her
There she stood as I had left her, but now her eyes were fixed upon the ground and her face once h no such a man as I had ever been It caottenof an hour, who had served her turn and been cast aside
CHAPTER XXIII
WHAT UMSLOPOGAAS SAW