new beginning? Waste not thy pity on these skeleton forms,--the
empty dwellings of martial spirits long since fled, . . as well weep
over fallen husks of corn from which the blossoms have sprung
right joyously upward! This world is but our roadside hostelry,
wherein we heaven-bound sojourners tarry for one brief, restless
night,--why regret the loss of the poor refreshment offered thee
here, when there are a thousand better feasts awaiting thee
elsewhere on thy way? Come,--let me lead thee hence, . . this place
is known as the Passage of the Tombs,--and communicates with the
Inner Court of the Sacred Temple,--and if, as I fear, thou art a
stray fugitive from the accursed Lysia's band of lovers, thou
mayest be tracked hither and quickly slain. Come,--I will show
thee a secret labyrinth by which thou canst gain the embankment of
the river, and from thence betake thyself speedily home, . . if thou
hast a home..." here he paused, and a keen, questioning glance
flashed in his dark eyes. "But,--notwithstanding thy fluency of
speech and fashion of attire, methinks thou hast the lost and
solitary air of one who is a stranger in the city of Al-Kyris?"

Theos sighed.

"A stranger I am indeed!" he said drearily--"A stranger to my very
self and all my former belongings! Ask me no questions, good
father, for, as I live, I cannot answer them! I am oppressed by a
nameless and mysterious suffering, . . my brain is darkened,--my
thoughts but half-formed and never wholly uttered, and I,--I who
once deemed human intelligence and reason all-supreme, all-clear,
all-absolute, am now compelled to use that reason reasonlessly,
and to work with that intelligence in helpless ignorance as to
what end my mental toil shall serve! Woeful and strange it is!--