"Nothing, nothing, except that Time is so very short.A kiss, a touch, a little light and a little darkness, and it is gone.Ask my father Oro who has lived a thousand years and slept for tens of thousands, as I have, and he will say the same.It is against Time that he fights; he who, believing in nothing beyond, will inherit nothing, as Bastin says; he to whom Time has brought nothing save a passing, blood-stained greatness, and triumph ending in darkness and disaster, and hope that will surely suffer hope's eclipse, and power that must lay down its coronet in dust.""And what has it brought to you, Yva, beyond a fair body and a soul of strength?""It has brought a spirit, Humphrey.Between them the body and the soul have bred a spirit, and in the fires of tribulation from that spirit has been distilled the essence of eternal love.That is Time's gift to me, and therefore, although still he rules me here, I mock at Fate," and she waved her hand with a gesture of defiance at the stern-faced, sexless effigy which sat above us, the sword across its knees.
"Look! Look!" she went on in a swelling voice of music, pointing to the statues of the dotard and the beauteous woman.
"They implore Fate, they worship Fate.I do not implore, I do not worship or ask a sign as even Oro does and as did his forefathers.I rise above and triumph.As Fate, the god of my people, sets his foot upon the sun, so I set my foot upon Fate, and thence, like a swimmer from a rock, leap into the waters of Immortality."I looked at her whose presence, as happened from time to time, had grown majestic beyond that of woman; I studied her deep eyes which were full of lights, not of this world, and I grew afraid.
"What do you mean?" I asked."Yva, you talk like one who has finished with life.""It passes," she answered quickly."Life passes like breath fading from a mirror.So should all talk who breathe beneath the sun.""Yes, Yva, but if you went and left me still breathing on that mocking glass--""If so, what of it? Will not your breath fade also and join mine where all vapours go? Or if it were yours that faded and mine that remained for some few hours, is it not the same? Ithink, Humphrey, that already you have seen a beloved breath melt from the glass of life," she added, looking at me earnestly.
I bowed my head and answered:
"Yes, and therefore I am ashamed."
"Oh! why should you be ashamed, Humphrey, who are not sure but that two breaths may yet be one breath? How do you know that there is a difference between them?""You drive me mad, Yva.I cannot understand.""Nor can I altogether, Humphrey.Why should I, seeing that I am no more than woman, as you are no more than man? I would always have you remember, Humphrey, that I am no spirit or sorceress, but just a woman--like her you lost."I looked at her doubtfully and answered:
"Women do not sleep for two hundred thousand years.Women do not take dream journeys to the stars.Women do not make the dead past live again before the watcher's eyes.Their hair does not glimmer in the dusk nor do their bodies gleam, nor have they such strength of soul or eyes so wonderful, or loveliness so great."These words appeared to distress her who, as it seemed to me, was above all things anxious to prove herself woman and no more.
"All these qualities are nothing, Humphrey," she cried."As for the beauty, such as it is, it comes to me with my blood, and with it the glitter of my hair which is the heritage of those who for generations have drunk of the Life-water.My mother was lovelier than I, as was her mother, or so I have heard, since only the fairest were the wives of the Kings of the Children of Wisdom.
For the rest, such arts as I have spring not from magic, but from knowledge which your people will acquire in days to come, that is, if Oro spares them.Surely you above all should know that Iam only woman," she added very slowly and searching my face with her eyes.
"Why, Yva? During the little while that we have been together Ihave seen much which makes me doubt.Even Bickley the sceptic doubts also.""I will tell you, though I am not sure that you will believe me." She glanced about her as though she were frightened lest someone should overhear her words or read her thoughts.Then she stretched out her hands and drawing my head towards her, put her lips to my ear and whispered:
