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As he pronounced these words he noiselessly departed, without any salutation whatever to Sah-luma, who heaved a sigh of relief when he had gone, and, rising from his couch came and placed one hand affectionately on Theos's shoulder.
He seemed to be vaguely groping his way to his former place beside the King, and Theos, seeing this, quickly caught him by the arm and drew him thither, whispering anxiously the while: "Sah-luma!-Sah-luma! ... What ails thee?" The Laureate turned upon him a bewildered, piteous face, white with an intensity of speechless anguish.
The impassive, cold-blooded calmness with which all the men present, even Sah-luma, looked on at the revolting spectacle of their late comrade's torture, filled Theos with shuddering abhorrence, ... sick at heart, he strove to turn away his eyes from the straining throat and upturned face of the miserable Nir- jalis, a face that had a moment or two before been beautiful, but was now so disfigured as to be almost beyond recognition.
"I would live a different life NOW!" answered Sah-luma steadily, looking his companion full in the eyes as he spoke, while a grave smile shadowed rather than lightened his features. "I would begin at once, . . so that when the new Future dawned for me, I might not be haunted or tortured by the remembrance of a misspent Past!
Yet, how are we to fathom her nature? how shall we guess, . . how can we decide? Are we fooled by an evil fate? or do we in our loves and marriages deliberately fool ourselves?" He pondered the question hazily without arriving at any satisfactory answer, . . and as Sah-luma still did not return, he resumed his slow, unguided, and solitary way.
One wonders, . . one cannot help wondering.. are their aspirations all in vain? ... and will the grave seal down their hopes forever?" Sah-luma paused a moment before replying.
"Alas, most potent Sovereign!" he murmured.. "I am a man of sad memories, whose soul is like the desert, barren of all beauty! I may have sung of love in my time, but my songs were never new, never worthy to last one little hour! And whatsoever of faith, passion, or heart-ecstasy my fancy could with devious dreams devise, Sah-luma knows, . . and in Sah-luma's song all my best thoughts are said!"
Again a silence ensued, Sah-luma was evidently centred like a spider in a web of his own thought- weaving, and his attendant gently swept the strings of the harp again to recall his wandering fancies. Suddenly he looked up, . . his eyes were sombre, and a musing trouble shadowed the brightness of his face.
This thought, in its absorbing painfulness, straightway drove out all others, and Theos, who had carried his comrade's corpse bravely and unshrinkingly through a fiery vortex of imminent peril, now sank on his knees all desolate and unnerved, his hot tears dropping fast on that fair, still, white face that he knew would never flush to the warmth of life again! "Sah-luma!
Some deadly evil seemed burnt out of his life, . . moreover her command had slain Sah-luma! ... Enough! ... no fate however horrible, could be more so than she in her wanton wickedness deserved! ... But alas! her beauty! ... He dared not think of its subtle, slumberous charm! ... and stung to a new sense of desperation, he plunged recklessly toward the dusky aperture he had seen, which appeared to enlarge itself mysteriously as he approached, like the opening gateway of some magic cavern.
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