I am named Leo Vincey,
he answered.
Leo Vincey! I like the name, which to me well befits a man so goodly. And thou, the companion of—Leo Vincey?
I am named Horace Holly.
So. Then tell me, Leo Vincey and Horace Holly, what came ye so far to seek?
We looked at each other, and I said—
The tale is long and strange. O—but by what title must we address thee?
By the name which I bear here, Hes.
O Hes,
I said, wondering what name she bore elsewhere.
Yet I desire to hear that tale,
she went on, and to me her voice sounded eager. Nay, not all to-night, for I know that you both are weary; a little of it only. In sooth, Strangers, there is a sameness in this home of contemplations, and no heart can feed only on the past, if such a thing there be. Therefore I welcome a new history from the world without. Tell it me, thou, Leo, as briefly as thou wilt, so that thou tell the truth, for in the Presence of which I am a Minister, may nothing else be uttered.
Priestess,
he said, in his curt fashion, I obey. Many years ago when I was young, my friend and foster-father and I, led by records of the past, travelled to a wild land, and there found a certain divine woman who had conquered time.
Then that woman must have been both aged and hideous.
I said, Priestess, that she had conquered time, not suffered it, for the gift of immortal youth was hers. Also she was not hideous; she was beauty itself.
Therefore stranger, thou didst worship her for her beauty's sake, as a man does.
I did not worship her; I loved her, which is another thing. The priest Oros here worships thee, whom he calls Mother. I loved that immortal woman.
