She sighed deeply, entered, and fell upon her hands and knees, after the custom of the Amahagger people, in the presence of the dread She.

`Stand,' said Ayesha in her coldest voice, `and come hither.'

Ustane obeyed, standing before her with bowed head.

Then came a pause, which Ayesha broke.

`Who is this man?' she said, pointing to the sleeping form of Leo.

`The man is my husband,' she answered in a low voice.

`Who gave him to thee for a husband?'

`I took him according to the custom of our country, oh She.'

`Thou hast done evil, woman, in taking this man, who is a stranger. He is not a man of thine own race, and the custom fails. Listen: perchance thou didst this thing through ignorance, therefore, woman, do I spare thee, otherwise hadst thou died. Listen again. Go from hence back to thine own place, and never dare to speak to or set thine eyes upon this man again. He is not for thee. Listen a third time. If thou breakest this my law, that moment thou diest. Go.'

But Ustane did not move.

`Go, woman!'

Then she looked up, and I saw that her face was torn with passion.

`Nay, oh She, I will not go,' she answered in a choked voice: `the man is my husband, and I love him--I love him, and I will not leave him. What right hast thou to command me to leave my husband?'

I saw a little quiver pass down Ayesha's frame, and shuddered myself, fearing the worst.

`Be pitiful,' I said in Latin; `it is but Nature working.'

`I am pitiful,' she answered coldly in the same language; `had I not been pitiful she had been dead even now.' Then addressing Ustane: `Woman, I say to thee, go before I destroy thee where thou art!'

`I will not go! He is mine--mine!' she cried in anguish. `I took him, and I saved his life! Destroy me, then, if thou hast the power! I will not give thee my husband--never--never!'

Ayesha made a movement so swift that I could scarcely follow it, but it seemed to me that she lightly struck the poor girl upon the head with her hand. I looked at Ustane, and then staggered back in horror, for there upon her hair, right across her bronze-like tresses, were three finger-marks white as snow. As for the girl herself, she had put her hands to her head, and was looking dazed.

`Great heavens!' I said, perfectly aghast at this dreadful manifestation of inhuman power; but She did but laugh a little.

`Thou thinkest, poor ignorant fool,' she said to the bewildered woman, `that I have not power to slay. Stay, there lies a mirror,' and she pointed to Leo's round shaving-glass that had been arranged by Job with other things upon his portmanteau; `give it to this woman, my Holly, and let her see that which lies across her hair, and whether or no I have power to slay.'

I picked up the glass, and held it before Ustane's eyes. She gazed, then felt at her hair, then gazed again, and then sank upon the ground with a sort of sob.