"Come, Holly, do now thy part and give this maiden to this man."
Like one in a dream I obeyed her and took Ayesha's outstretched hand
and Leo's. As I held them thus, I tell the truth:--it was as though some
fire rushed through my veins from her to him, shaking and shattering me
with swift waves of burning and unearthly Bliss. With the fire too came
glorious visions and sounds of mighty music, and a sense as though my
brain, filled with over-flowing life, must burst asunder beneath its
weight.
I joined their hands; I know not how; I blessed them, I know not in what
words. Then I reeled back against the wall and watched.
This is what I saw.
With an abandonment and a passion so splendid and intense that it seemed
more than human, with a murmured cry of "Husband!" Ayesha cast her arms
about her lover's neck and drawing down his head to hers so that the
gold hair was mingled with her raven locks, she kissed him on the lips.
Thus they clung a little while, and as they clung the gentle diadem
of light from her brow spread to his brow also, and through the white
wrappings of her robe became visible her perfect shape shining with
faint fire. With a little happy laugh she left him, saying,
"Thus, Leo Vincey, oh! thus for the second time do I give myself to
thee, and with this flesh and spirit all I swore to thee, there in the
dim Caves of Kor and here in the palace of Kaloon.
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