in the second place, I knew that I should get the worst of it.  It is weary work enough to argue with an ordinary materialist, who hurls statistics and whole strata of geological facts at your head, whilst you can only buffet him with deductions and instincts and the snowflakes of faith, that are, alas! so apt to melt in the hot embers of our troubles.  How little chance, then, should I have against one whose brain was supernaturally sharpened, and who had two thousand years of experience, besides all manner of knowledge of the secrets of Nature at her command!  Feeling that she would be more likely to convert me than I should to convert her, I thought it best to leave the matter alone, and so sat silent.  Many a time since then have I bitterly regretted that I did so, for thereby I lost the only opportunity I can remember having had of ascertaining what Ayesha really believed, and what her “philosophy” was.

“Well, my Holly,” she continued, “and so those people of mine have found a prophet, a false prophet thou sayest, for he is not thine own, and, indeed, I doubt it not.  Yet in my day was it otherwise, for then we Arabs had many gods.  Allat there was, and Saba, the Host of Heaven, Al Uzza, and Manah the stony one, for whom the blood of victims flowed, and Wadd and Sawa, and Yaghuth the Lion of the dwellers in Yaman, and Yaeuk the Horse of Morad, and Nasr the Eagle of Hamyar; ay, and many more.  Oh, the folly of it all, the shame and the pitiful folly!  Yet when I rose in wisdom and spoke thereof, surely they would have slain me in the name of their outraged gods.  Well, so hath it ever been;—­but, my Holly, art thou weary of me already, that thou dost sit so silent?  Or dost thou fear lest I should teach thee my philosophy?—­for know I have a philosophy.  What would a teacher be without her own philosophy? and if thou dost vex me overmuch beware! for I will have thee learn it, and thou shalt be my disciple, and we twain will found a faith that shall swallow up all others.  Faithless man!  And but half an hour since thou wast upon thy knees—­the posture does not suit thee, Holly—­swearing that thou didst love me.  What shall we do?—­Nay, I have it.  I will come and see this youth, the Lion, as the old man Billali calls him, who came with thee, and who is so sick.  The fever must have run its course by now, and if he is about to die I will recover him.  Fear not, my Holly, I shall use no magic.  Have I not told thee that there is no such thing as magic, though there is such a thing as understanding and applying the forces which are in Nature?  Go now, and presently, when I have made the drug ready, I will follow thee."[*]