country in all the world--pure emerald--nature's supreme concentrated
effort of green for miles and miles. No, I do not want to live in that
small village in a brown mud hut, shared with another wife to that gaunt
blue linen-clad man; I would kill them all and be free. I want to go on,
beloved--on to the desert for you and me alone, with its wonderful passion,
and wonderful peace...."

Her voice became still more dreamy; there was a cadence in it now as if
some soul within were forcing her to chant it all, with almost the lilt of
blank verse.

"Oh! the strange drug of the glorious East, flooding your senses with
beauty and life. 'Tis the spell of the Sphinx, and now we are there, close
in her presence. Look, the sun has set....

"Hush! hush! beloved! we are alone, the camels and guides afar off--we are
alone, sweetheart, and we go on together, you and I and the moon. See, she
is rising all silver and pure, and blue is the sky, and scented the night.
Look, there is the Sphinx! Do you see the strange mystery of her smile and
the glamour of her eyes? She is a goddess, and she knows men's souls, and
their foolish unavailing passion and pain--never content with the _Is_
which they have, always regretting the _Was_ which has passed, and
building false hopes on the phantom _May be._ But you and I, my lover, my
sweet, have fathomed the riddle which is hid in the smile of our goddess,
our Sphinx--we have guessed it, and now are as high gods too. For we know
it means to live in the present, and quaff life in its full. Sweetheart,
beloved--joy and life in its full----"....

Her voice grew faint and far away, like the echo of some exquisite song,
and the lids closed over Paul's blue eyes, and he slept.