and in that same bastard Greek tongue, mixed here and there with Mongolian words such as are common to the dialects of Central Asia. I could not hear or understand all she said, but some sentences I did understand, and they frightened me not a little.
Man of my dreams,
she murmured, whence come you? Who are you? Why did the Hesea bid me to meet you?
Then some sentences I could not catch. You sleep; in sleep the eyes are opened. Answer, I bid you; say what is the bond between you and me? Why have I dreamt of you? Why do I know you? Why—?
and the sweet, rich voice died slowly from a whisper into silence, as though she were ashamed to utter what was on her tongue.
As she bent over him a lock of her hair broke loose from its jewelled fillet and fell across his face. At its touch Leo seemed to wake, for he lifted his gaunt, white hand and touched the hair, then said in English—
Where am I? Oh! I remember;
and their eyes met as he strove to lift himself and could not. Then he spoke again in his broken, stumbling Greek, You are the lady who saved me from the water. Say, are you also that queen whom I have sought so long and endured so much to find?
I know not,
she answered in a voice as sweet as honey, a low, trembling voice; but true it is I am a queen—if a Khania be a queen.
Say, then. Queen, do you remember me?
We have met in dreams,
she answered, I think that we have met in a past that is far away. Yes; I knew it when first I saw you there by the river. Stranger with the well-remembered face, tell me, I pray you, how you are named?
Leo Vincey.
She shook her head, whispering—
I know not the name, yet you I know.
You know me! How do you know me?
he said
