"Thou sayest that I did torment thee, but it is I who have known
torment, I who desired to yield and dared not. Aye, I tell thee, Leo,
were I not sure that thy little stream of life is draining dry into the
great ocean of my life, drawn thither as the sea draws its rivers, or
as the sun draws mists, e'en now I would not yield. But I know, for my
wisdom tells it me, ere ever we could reach the shores of Libya, the ill
work would be done, and thou dead of thine own longing, thou dead and I
widowed who never was a wife.
"Therefore see! like lost Atene I take the dice and cast them, not
knowing how they shall fall. Not knowing how they shall fall, for good
or ill I cast," and she made a wild motion as of some desperate gamester
throwing his last throw.
"So," Ayesha went on, "the thing is done and the number summed for aye,
though it be hidden from my sight. I have made an end of doubts and
fears, and come death, come life, I'll meet it bravely.
"Say, how shall we be wed? I have it. Holly here must join our hands;
who else? He that ever was our guide shall give me unto thee, and thee
to me. This burning city is our altar, the dead and living are our
witnesses on earth and heaven. In place of rites and ceremonials for
this first time I lay my lips on thine, and when 'tis done, for music
I'll sing thee a nuptial chant of love such as mortal poet has not
written nor have mortal lovers heard.
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