"Does it grow here?"

"This is the first I have seen. It is said to grow only where the
gods walk. Do you know that throughout all India Kashmir is said
to be holy ground? It was called long ago the land of the gods,
and of strange, but not evil, sorceries. Great marvels were seen
here."

I felt the labyrinthine enchantments of that enchanted land were
closing about me - a slender web, grey, almost impalpable, finer
than fairy silk, was winding itself about my feet. My eyes were
opening to things I had not dreamed. She saw my thought.

"Yes, you could not have seen even that much of him in Peshawar.
You did not know then."

"He was not there," I answered, falling half unconsciously into
her tone.

"He is always there - everywhere, and when he plays, all who hear
must follow. He was the Pied Piper in Hamelin, he was Pan in
Hellas. You will hear his wild fluting in many strange places
when you know how to listen. When one has seen him the rest comes
soon. And then you will follow."

"Not away from you, Vanna."

"From the marriage feast, from the Table of the Lord," she said,
smiling strangely. "The man who wrote that spoke of another call,