"Hast THOU not loved her also?" he demanded, a faint, serious
smile curving his lips as he spoke, . . "If only for the space of
some few passing moments, was not thy soul ravished, thy heart
enslaved, thy manhood conquered by her spell? ... Aye! ... Thou
dost shrink at that!" And his smile deepened as Theos, suddenly
conscience-stricken, avoided his friend's too-scrutinizing gaze..
"Blame ME not, therefore, for THINE OWN weakness!"

He paused.. then went on slowly with a meditative air.. "I love
her, ... yes!--as a man must always love the woman that baffles
him, ... the woman whose moods are complex and fluctuating as the
winds on the sea,--and whose humor sways between the softness of
the dove and the fierceness of the tiger. Nothing is more fatally
fascinating to the masculine sense than such a creature,--more
especially if to this temperament is united rare physical grace,
combined with keen intellectual power. 'Tis vain to struggle
against the irresistible witchery exercised over us by the
commingling of beauty and ferocity,--we see it in the wild animals
of the forest and the high-soaring birds of the air,--and we like
nothing better than to hunt it, capture it, tame it.. or.. kill
it--as suits our pleasure!"

He paused again,--and again smiled, . . a grave, reluctant, doubting
smile such as seemed to Theos oddly familiar, suggesting to his
bewildered fancy that he must have seen it before, ON HIS OWN
FACE, reflected in a mirror!

"Even thus do I love Lysia!" continued Sah-luma--"She perplexes
me, . . she opposes her will to mine, ... the very irritation and
ferment into which I am thrown by her presence adds fire to my