Why this change?
Amaryllis was no less beautiful, no less brilliant, no less attractive than she had once been; but the Gischalan had wearied of her.
Laodice recalled that she had not been surprised to see the man throw Amaryllis aside.

It seemed to be the logical outcome of love such as theirs.

How, then, was she to escape that which no other woman escaped who loved without law?
In the soul of that stranger who had called himself Hesper, were lofty ideals, which had not been the least charm which had attracted her to him.

Was she, then, to dislodge these holy convictions, to take her place in his heart as one falling short of them, or were they still to exist as standards which he loved and which she could not reach?
In either event, how long would he love--what was the length of her probation before she, too, would encounter the inevitable weariness?
It occurred to her, then, how nearly the natural law of such love paralleled the religious prohibition that the Christian had shown to her.

However harsh and unjust the sentence seemed, it was rational.
With her own eyes she had seen its predictions borne out.