is to see the sins we sin the ik the word idle or � aye even the or struggle multiplied ten and mo ourselves spring up upon the universal bi of the to be the of a million whilst tile everlasting finger writes its endless count an a cold voice of justice cries in our conscience haunted so oh soul behold the thy wanton hand did scatter and long in vain for the wa of forget fulness what it is to have every earthly wisdom ye to bum for the deeper and forbidden draught to gather up all wealth and power and let them slip again like children weary of a painted toy to sweep the harp o fame and by its music to stamp i small beneath our feet to snatch at pleasure s ant find its wine is sand and at length to cast us down and pray the pitiless gods with whose stolen garment we have wrapped ourselves to take it back again and suffer us to naked to the grave such is the life thou say wilt thou have it now if it may be shared with thee he answered these arc born of loneliness but then our perfect turn them into joy aye she said while it was permitted to endure he it in the spring when the melt we ill journey together to and there thou shalt be in the of life that forbidden essence of which once thou fear to drink afterwards i wed thee that place is closed for ever not to my feet thine she answered fear not ly love were this mountain heaped i would blast � � a path through it with mine eyes and lay its secret bare oh would that thou as i am for then before tomorrow s sun we d watch the rolling pillar thunder by and thou taste its glory the third ordeal but it may not be hunger or cold can starve thee and waters drown swords can thee or sickness sap away thy strength had it not been for the false who my words as it was that she should do by this day we were across the mountains or had travelled northward through tlie frozen desert and the rivers now we must await the melting of the for winter is at band and in it as thou no man can live upon their heights eight months till april before we can start and how long to cross the mountains and all the vast distances beyond and the seas and the of why at the best two years must go by before we can even find the place and he fell to her to let them be wed at once and journey afterwards but she said nay and nay and nay it should not till at length as though fearing his pleading or that of h� own heart she rose and dismissed us ah my she said to me as we three parted i promised thee and myself some few hours of rest and of the happiness of quiet and thou how my desire has been fulfilled those old were wont to share their with one skeleton but here i counted four to night that you both could see and are named fear suspense and love denied doubtless also when these are buried others will come haunt us and snatch the poor morsel from our lips so hath it ever been with me whose feet dogs yet i hope on and now many a barrier lies hind us and hast been tried in the triple fires and yet proved true sweet be thy my love and sweeter still thy dreams for know my soul shall share them i vow to thee that to morrow we ll happy aye to morrow without fail why will she not marry me at once asked l when we were alone in our chamber because is afraid i ee during the weeks that followed these often and often i wondered to myself whether a more truly wretched being had ever lived than the or die spirit whom we knew as she and whether in fact also or in our imagination only she had arisen from the ashes of her hideous age into the bloom of perpetual hfe and beauty inconceivable these things at least were certain had achieved the secret of an existence so enduring that for all human purposes it might be called within certain � such as her utter inability to foresee the future � undoubtedly also she was with powers that can only be described as supernatural her rule over the strange community amongst whom she lived was absolute indeed its members regarded her as a goddess and as such she was worshipped after marvellous adventures the man who was her very life i i might almost say her soul whose being was so mysteriously with hers whom she loved also with the human passion of which woman can be capable had sought her out in this hidden corner of the world more thrice he had proved his fidelity to her first by his of the royal and beautiful if secondly by clinging to i when she seemed to be repulsive to every natural sense after that homage scene in the � i though with her unutterable before his eyes this did not appear to be so wonderful � by j and the r in the face of her terrible true or false that she had won her gifts and him through some dim with the powers of evil in the unknown fruits and of which he must be involved as the price of h possession yet was miserable even in her moods it was clear to me that those at the feast of which she had spoken were her continual companions indeed when we were alone she would acknowledge it in dark hints and veiled or allusions crushed i her rival the might 