He went, and I too went to see how it fared with Inez.  I found that she was fast asleep but in a quite different sleep to that into which Ayesha seemed to have plunged her.  Now it was absolutely natural and looking at her lying there upon the bed, I thought how young and healthy was her appearance.  The women in charge of her also told me that she had awakened at the hour appointed by She-who-commands, as it seemed, quite well and very hungry, although she appeared to be puzzled by her surroundings.  After she had eaten, they added that she had “sung a song,” which was probably a hymn, and prayed upon her knees, “making signs upon her breast” and then gone quietly to bed.

My anxiety relieved as regards Inez, I returned to my own quarters.  Not feeling inclined for slumber, however, instead of turning in I sat at the doorway contemplating the beauty of the night while I watched the countless fireflies that seemed to dust the air with sparks of burning gold; also the great owls and other fowl that haunt the dark.  These had come out in numbers from their hiding-places among the ruins and sailed to and fro like white-winged spirits, now seen and now lost in the gloom.

While I sat thus many reflections came to me as to the extraordinary nature of my experiences during the past few days.  Had any man ever known the like, I wondered?  What could they mean and what could this marvellous woman Ayesha be?  Was she perhaps a personification of Nature itself, as indeed to some extent all women are?  Was she human at all, or was she some spirit symbolising a departed people, faith and civilisation, and haunting the ruins where once she reigned as queen?  No, the idea was ridiculous, since such beings do not exist, though it was impossible to doubt that she possessed powers beyond those of common humanity, as she possessed beauty and fascination greater than are given to any other woman.

Of one thing I was certain, however, that the Shades I had seemed to visit had their being in the circle of her own imagination and intelligence.  There Umslopogaas was right; we had seen no dead, we had only seen pictures and images that she drew and fashioned.

Why did she do this, I wondered.  Perhaps to pretend to powers which she did not possess, perhaps out of sheer elfish mischief, or perhaps, as she asserted, just to teach us a lesson and to humble us in our own sight.  Well, if so she had succeeded, for never did I feel so crushed and humiliated as at that moment.

I had seemed to descend, or ascend, into Hades, and there had only seen things that gave me little joy and did but serve to reopen old wounds.  Then, on awaking, I had been bewitched; yes, fresh from those visions of the most dear dead, I had been bewitched by the overpowering magic of this woman’s loveliness and charm, and made a fool of myself, only to be brought back to my senses by her triumphant mockery.  Oh, I was humbled indeed, and yet the odd thing is that I could not feel angry with her, and what is more that, perhaps from vanity, I believed in her profession of friendship towards myself.