IN THE SANCTUARY
Nya ceased her singing, and the dwarf women their beating on the drums.
"Hast thou been a journey, Maiden?" she asked, looking at Rachel
curiously.
"Aye, Mother," she answered in a faint voice, "and a journey far and
strange."
"And thou, Noie, my niece?"
"Aye, Mother," she answered, shivering as though with cold or fear, "but I
went not with my Sister here, I went alone--for years and years."
"A far journey thou sayest, Inkosazana, and one that was for years and
years, thou sayest, Noie, yet the eyes of both of you have been shut for
so long only as it takes a burnt moth to fall from the lamp flame to the
ground. I think that you slept and dreamed a moment, that is all."
"Mayhap, Mother," replied Rachel, "but if so mine was a most wondrous
dream, such as has
