"She watches Leo asleep."
"Leo!" said Ayesha, in an absent voice; "why, that is 'lion' in the
Latin tongue. The old man hath named happily for once. It is very
strange," she went on, speaking to herself, "very. So like--but it is
not possible!" With an impatient gesture she passed her hand over
the water once more. It darkened, and the image vanished silently and
mysteriously as it had risen, and once more the lamplight, and the
lamplight only, shone on the placid surface of that limpid, living
mirror.
"Hast thou aught to ask me before thou goest, oh Holly?" she said, after
a few moments' reflection. "It is but a rude life that thou must live
here, for these people are savages, and know not the ways of cultivated
man. Not that I am troubled thereby, for behold my food," and she
pointed to the fruit upon the little table. "Naught but fruit doth
ever pass my lips--fruit and cakes of flour, and a little water. I have
bidden my girls to wait upon thee. They are mutes, thou knowest, deaf
are they and dumb, and therefore the safest of servants, save to those
who can read their faces and their signs.
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