At last, from far far away, came the first murmur of sound, that grew
and grew till it began to crash and bellow in the distance. As she heard
it, Ayesha swiftly threw off her gauzy wrapping, loosened the golden
snake from her kirtle, and then, shaking her lovely hair about her like
a garment, beneath its cover slipped the kirtle off and replaced the
snaky belt around her and outside the masses of her falling hair. There
she stood before us as Eve might have stood before Adam, clad in nothing
but her abundant locks, held round her by the golden band; and no words
of mine can tell how sweet she looked--and yet how divine. Nearer and
nearer came the thunder-wheels of fire, and as they came she pushed one
ivory arm through the dark masses of her hair and flung it round Leo's
neck.
"Oh, my love, my love!" she murmured, "wilt thou ever know how I have
loved thee?" and she kissed him on the forehead, and then went and stood
in the pathway of the flame of Life.
There was, I remember, to my mind something very touching about her
words and that embrace upon the forehead.
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