"Many lovers have sought me;I have loved none of them:they sought but to enslave me;they sought me but as the men of my city seek gems of price.--When you found me,I found a man!I put you to the test;you stood it;your love was genuine!--It was,however,far from ideal--far from such love as I would have.You loved me truly,but not with true love.Pity has,but is not love.What woman of any world would return love for pity?Such love as yours was then,is hateful to me.I knew that,if you saw me as I am,you would love me--like the rest of them--to have and to hold:I would none of that either!I would be otherwise loved!I would have a love that outlived hopelessness,outmeasured indifference,hate,scorn!
Therefore did I put on cruelty,despite,ingratitude.When I left you,I had shown myself such as you could at least no longer follow from pity:I was no longer in need of you!But you must satisfy my desire or set me free--prove yourself priceless or worthless!
To satisfy the hunger of my love,you must follow me,looking for nothing,not gratitude,not even pity in return!--follow and find me,and be content with merest presence,with scantest forbearance!--I,not you,have failed;I yield the contest."She looked at me tenderly,and hid her face in her hands.But Ihad caught a flash and a sparkle behind the tenderness,and did not believe her.She laid herself out to secure and enslave me;she only fascinated me!
"Beautiful princess,"I said,"let me understand how you came to be found in such evil plight.""There are things I cannot explain,"she replied,"until you have become capable of understanding them--which can only be when love is grown perfect.There are many things so hidden from you that you cannot even wish to know them;but any question you can put,Ican in some measure answer.
"I had set out to visit a part of my dominions occupied by a savage dwarf-people,strong and fierce,enemies to law and order,opposed to every kind of progress--an evil race.I went alone,fearing nothing,unaware of the least necessity for precaution.I did not know that upon the hot stream beside which you found me,a certain woman,by no means so powerful as myself,not being immortal,had cast what you call a spell--which is merely the setting in motion of a force as natural as any other,but operating primarily in a region beyond the ken of the mortal who makes use of the force.
"I set out on my journey,reached the stream,bounded across it,----"A shadow of embarrassment darkened her cheek:I understood it,but showed no sign.Checked for the merest moment,she went on:
"--you know what a step it is in parts!--But in the very act,an indescribable cold invaded me.I recognised at once the nature of the assault,and knew it could affect me but temporarily.By sheer force of will I dragged myself to the wood--nor knew anything more until I saw you asleep,and the horrible worm at your neck.I crept out,dragged the monster from you,and laid my lips to the wound.
You began to wake;I buried myself among the leaves."She rose,her eyes flashing as never human eyes flashed,and threw her arms high over her head.
"What you have made me is yours!"she cried."I will repay you as never yet did woman!My power,my beauty,my love are your own:
take them."
She dropt kneeling beside me,laid her arms across my knees,and looked up in my face.
Then first I noted on her left hand a large clumsy glove.In my mind's eye I saw hair and claws under it,but I knew it was a hand shut hard--perhaps badly bruised.I glanced at the other:it was lovely as hand could be,and I felt that,if I did less than loathe her,I should love her.Not to dally with usurping emotions,Iturned my eyes aside.
She started to her feet.I sat motionless,looking down.
"To me she may be true!"said my vanity.For a moment I was tempted to love a lie.
An odour,rather than the gentlest of airy pulses,was fanning me.
I glanced up.She stood erect before me,waving her lovely arms in seemingly mystic fashion.
A frightful roar made my heart rebound against the walls of its cage.The alabaster trembled as if it would shake into shivers.
The princess shuddered visibly.
"My wine was too strong for you!"she said,in a quavering voice;"I ought not to have let you take a full draught!Go and sleep now,and when you wake ask me what you please.--I will go with you:come."As she preceded me up the stair,--
"I do not wonder that roar startled you!"she said."It startled me,I confess:for a moment I feared she had escaped.But that is impossible."The roar seemed to me,however--I could not tell why--to come from the WHITE leopardess,and to be meant for me,not the princess.
With a smile she left me at the door of my room,but as she turned I read anxiety on her beautiful face.