"The world was not, was not, and in the womb of Silence
Slept the souls of men.
Yet I was and thou——"
Suddenly Ayesha stopped, and I felt rather than saw the horror on her face.
Look! Leo swayed to and fro as though the stones beneath him were but a rocking boat. To and fro he swayed, stretched out his blind arms to clasp her—then suddenly fell backwards, and lay still.
Oh! what a shriek was that she gave! Surely it must have wakened the very corpses upon the plain. Surely it must have echoed in the stars. One shriek only—then throbbing silence.
I sprang to him, and there, withered in Ayesha's kiss, slain by the fire of her love, Leo lay dead—lay dead upon the breast of dead Atene!
CHAPTER XXIV
THE PASSING OF AYESHA
I heard Ayesha say presently, and the words struck me as dreadful
