At last it seemed to see or feel me, for it stood upon its hind legs and licked my face, yelping with mad joy, as I could see though I heard nothing.  Now I wept in earnest and bent down to hug and kiss the faithful beast, but this I could not do, since like myself it was only shadow.

Then suddenly all dissolved in a cataract of many-coloured flames and I fell down into an infinite gulf of blackness.

Surely Ayesha was talking to me!  What did she say?  What did she say?  I could not catch her words, but I caught her laughter and knew that after her fashion she was making a mock of me.  My eyelids were dragged down as though with heavy sleep; it was difficult to lift them.  At last they were open and I saw Ayesha seated on her couch before me and—­this I noted at once—­with her lovely face unveiled.  I looked about me, seeking Umslopogaas and Hans.  But they were gone as I guessed they must be, since otherwise Ayesha would not have been unveiled.  We were quite alone.  She was addressing me and in a new fashion, since now she had abandoned the formal “you” and was using the more impressive and intimate “thou,” much as is the manner of the French.

“Thou hast made thy journey, Allan,” she said, “and what thou hast seen there thou shalt tell me presently.  Yet from thy mien I gather this—­that thou art glad to look upon flesh and blood again and, after the company of spirits, to find that of mortal woman.  Come then and sit beside me and tell thy tale.”

“Where are the others?” I asked as I rose slowly to obey, for my head swam and my feet seemed feeble.

“Gone, Allan, who as I think have had enough of ghosts, which is perhaps thy case also.  Come, drink this and be a man once more.  Drink it to me whose skill and power have brought thee safe from lands that human feet were never meant to tread,” and taking a strange-shaped cup from a stool that stood beside her, she offered it to me.

I drank to the last drop, neither knowing nor caring whether it were wine or poison, since my heart seemed desperate at its failure and my spirit crushed beneath the weight of its great betrayal.  I suppose it was the former, for the contents of that cup ran through my veins like fire and gave me back my courage and the joy of life.

I stepped to the dais and sat me down upon the couch, leaning against its rounded end so that I was almost face to face with Ayesha who had turned towards me, and thence could study her unveiled loveliness.  For a while she said nothing, only eyed me up and down and smiled and smiled, as though she were waiting for that wine to do its work with me.

“Now that thou art a man again, Allan, tell me what thou didst see when thou wast more—­or less—­than man.”

So I told her all, for some power within her seemed to draw the truth out of me.  Nor did the tale appear to cause her much surprise.

“There is truth in thy dream,” she said when I had finished; “a lesson also.”