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.  This was the first temptation, the ordeal of thy flesh—­nay, not the first—­the second, for Atene and her lurings were the first.  But thou wast loyal, and in the magic of thy conquering love my beauty and my womanhood were re-born.

“Hadst thou rejected me to-night, when, as I was bidden to do, I showed thee that vision in the Sanctuary and confessed to thee my soul’s black crime, then hopeless and helpless, unshielded by my earthly power, I must have wandered on into the deep and endless night of solitude.  This was the third appointed test, the trial of thy spirit, and by thy steadfastness, Leo, thou hast loosed the hand of Destiny from about my throat.  Now I am regenerate in thee—­through thee may hope again for some true life beyond, which thou shalt share.  And yet, and yet, if thou shouldst suffer, as well may chance——­”

“Then I suffer, and there’s an end,” broke in Leo serenely.  “Save for a few things my mind is clear, and there must be justice for us all at last.  If I have broken the bond that bound thee, if I have freed thee from some threatening, spiritual ill by taking a risk upon my head, well, I have not lived, and if need be, shall not die in vain.  So let us have done with all these problems, or rather first answer thou me one.  Ayesha, how wast thou changed upon that peak?”

“In flame I left thee, Leo, and in flame I did return, as in flame, mayhap, we shall both depart.  Or perhaps the change was in the eyes of all of you who watched, and not in this shape of mine.  I have answered.  Seek to learn no more.”

“One thing I do still seek to learn.  Ayesha, we were betrothed to-night.  When wilt thou marry me?”