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.