Triumph!
Then followed a moment of the most painful silence that I ever endured. It was broken by Ayesha, who addressed herself to Leo.
“Nay, now, my lord and guest,” she said in her softest tones, which yet had the ring of steel about them, “look not so bashful. Surely the sight was a pretty one—the leopard and the lion!” “Oh, hang it all!” said Leo in English. “And thou, Ustane,” she went on, “surely I should have passed thee by, had not the light fallen on the white across thy hair,” and she pointed to the bright edge of the rising moon which was now appearing above the horizon. “Well! well! the dance is done—see, the tapers have burnt down, and all things end in silence and in ashes. So thou thoughtest it a fit time for love, Ustane, my servant—and I, dreaming not that I could be di
