"
Now he would have spoken, but with a motion of her hand she bade him be
silent, and continued--"See now, Leo, three great dangers has thy
body passed of late upon its journey to my side; the Death-hounds,
the Mountains, and the Precipice. Know that these were but types and
ordained foreshadowings of the last threefold trial of thy soul. From
the pursuing passions of Atene which must have undone us both, thou hast
escaped victorious. Thou hast endured the desert loneliness of the
sands and snows starving for a comfort that never came. Even when the
avalanche thundered round thee thy faith stood fast as it stood above
the Pit of flame, while after bitter years of doubt a rushing flood
of horror swallowed up thy hopes. As thou didst descend the glacier's
steep, not knowing what lay beneath that fearful path, so but now and of
thine own choice, for very love of me, thou hast plunged headlong into
an abyss that is deeper far, to share its terrors with my spirit. Dost
thou understand at last?"
"Something, not all, I think," he answered slowly.
"Surely thou art wrapped in a double veil of blindness," she cried
impatiently. "Listen again:
"Hadst thou yielded to Nature's crying and rejected me but yesterday,
in that foul shape I must perchance have lingered for uncounted time,
playing the poor part of priestess of a forgotten faith.
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