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At his call the fire shot forth tall flames, and Sesphra entered these flames as a man goes between parted curtains, and instantly the fire collapsed and was as it had been. Already the hands of Freydis were moving deftly in the Sleep Charm, so that Niafer did not move. Freydis to-day was resplendently robed in flame-colored silk, and about her dark hair was a circlet of burnished copper.
Says Freydis, still smiling a queer secret smile: "Indeed, there is no telling into what folly and misery Sesphra would not have led you. For you fashioned his legs unevenly, and he has not ever pardoned you his lameness." "The thing is a devil," Manuel said. "And this is the figure I desired to make, this is the child of my long dreams and labors!
"Yet, Sesphra, all these princes are my friends, and their goodwill is necessary to me " "No, Manuel.
In Sesphra and in the child and in me you have lightly created that which you cannot control. No, it is I who control the outcome." Now a golden panther came quite noiselessly into the room, and sat to the right of Freydis, and looked at Dom Manuel. "Why, to be sure," says Manuel, heartily, "and I am sure, too, that nobody is better qualified to handle it.
Presently you could hear music: it was the ravishing Nis air, which charms the mind into sweet confusion and oblivion, and Manuel did not make any apparent attempt to withstand its wooing. He hastily undressed, knelt for a decorous interval, and climbed vexedly into bed. Sesphra of the Dreams In the morning Dom Manuel arose early, and left Niafer still sleeping with the baby.
"No," Manuel said, "I cannot go with you. For in my heart is enkindling such love of you as frightens me." "It is through love men win to happiness, poor lonely Manuel." Now when Manuel answered Sesphra there was in Manuel's face trouble and bewilderment.
"What will you do then, dear Sesphra?" Manuel asks him fondly. "I shall survive you, as all gods outlive their creators. And I must depute the building of your monument to men of feeble minds which have been properly impaired by futile studies and senility. That is the way in which all gods are doomed to deal with their creators: but that need not trouble us as yet."
So matters went prosperously with Dom Manuel, and there was nothing to trouble his peace of mind, unless it were some feeling of responsibility for the cult of Sesphra, whose worship was now increasing everywhere among the nations.
"I lived thus once upon a time," said Manuel, sighing, "but nowadays there is a bond upon me to provide for my wife, and for my child too, and I have not much leisure left for anything else." Then Sesphra began to speak adorably, as he walked on the river bank, with one arm about Dom Manuel. Always Sesphra limped as he walked.
"Why, but yes, this fair lame child of yours is my husband to-day, poor, frightened, fidgeting gray Manuel, and I love him, for Sesphra is all that you were when I loved you, Manuel, and when you condescended to take your pleasure of me." Now an orange-colored rat came into the room, and sat down upon the hearth to the left hand of Freydis, and looked at Dom Manuel.
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