Ayesha | Page 2

to them again.
Often I have wondered, idly enough, what happened to them there;
whether they were dead, or perhaps droning their lives away as monks
in some Thibetan Lamasery, or studying magic and practising
asceticism under the tuition of the Eastern Masters trusting that thus
they would build a bridge by which they might pass to the side of their
adored Immortal.
Now at length, when I had not thought of them for months, without a
single warning sign, out of the blue as it were, comes the answer to
these wonderings!
To think--only to think--that I, the Editor aforesaid, from its appearance
suspecting something quite familiar and without interest, pushed aside
that dingy, unregistered, brown-paper parcel directed in an unknown
hand, and for two whole days let it lie forgotten. Indeed there it might
be lying now, had not another person been moved to curiosity, and
opening it, found within a bundle of manuscript badly burned upon the
back, and with this two letters addressed to myself.
Although so great a time had passed since I saw it, and it was shaky
now because of the author's age or sickness, I knew the writing at
once--nobody ever made an "H" with that peculiar twirl under it except

Mr. Holly. I tore open the sealed envelope, and sure enough the first
thing my eye fell upon was the signature, /L. H. Holly/. It is long since
I read anything so eagerly as I did that letter. Here it is:--
"My dear sir,--I have ascertained that you still live, and strange to say I
still live also--for a little while.
"As soon as I came into touch with civilization again I found a copy of
your book /She/, or rather of my book, and read it--first of all in a
Hindostani translation. My host--he was a minister of some religious
body, a man of worthy but prosaic mind--expressed surprise that a 'wild
romance' should absorb me so much. I answered that those who have
wide experience of the hard facts of life often find interest in romance.
Had he known what were the hard facts to which I alluded, I wonder
what that excellent person would have said?
"I see that you carried out your part of the business well and faithfully.
Every instruction has been obeyed, nothing has been added or taken
away. Therefore, to you, to whom some twenty years ago I entrusted
the beginning of the history, I wish to entrust its end also. You were the
first to learn of /She-Who-Must-Be- Obeyed/, who from century to
century sat alone, clothed with unchanging loveliness in the sepulchres
of Kor, waiting till her lost love was born again, and Destiny brought
him back to her.
"It is right, therefore, that you should be the first to learn also of
Ayesha, Hesea and Spirit of the Mountain, the priestess of that Oracle
which since the time of Alexander the Great has reigned between the
flaming pillars in the Sanctuary, the last holder of the sceptre of Hes or
Isis upon the earth. It is right also that to you first among men I should
reveal the mystic consummation of the wondrous tragedy which began
at Kor, or perchance far earlier in Egypt and elsewhere.
"I am very ill; I have struggled back to this old house of mine to die,
and my end is at hand. I have asked the doctor here, after all is over, to
send you the Record, that is unless I change my mind and burn it first.
You will also receive, if you receive anything at all, a case containing
several rough sketches which may be of use to you, and a /sistrum/, the
instrument that has been always used in the worship of the Nature
goddesses of the old Egyptians, Isis and Hathor, which you will see is
as beautiful as it is ancient. I give it to you for two reasons; as a token
of my gratitude and regard, and as the only piece of evidence that is left

to me of the literal truth of what I have written in the accompanying
manuscript, where you will find it often mentioned. Perhaps also you
will value it as a souvenir of, I suppose, the strangest and loveliest
being who ever was, or rather, is. It was her sceptre, the rod of her
power, with which I saw her salute the Shadows in the Sanctuary, and
her gift to me.
"It has virtues also; some part of Ayesha's might yet haunts the symbol
to which even spirits bowed, but if you should discover them, beware
how they are used.
"I have neither the strength nor the will to write more. The Record must
speak for itself. Do with it what you like, and believe it