In bygone years the books “She” and “Ayesha” were dedicated to AndrewLang. Now, when he is dead, this, the last romance that will bewritten concerning “She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed,” is offered as a tributeto his beloved and honoured memory.
Ditchingham, 1922.
What was the greatest fault of Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed?Surely a vanity so colossal that, to take one out of many examples, itpersuaded her that her mother died after looking upon her, fearinglest, should she live, she might give birth to another child who wasless fair.
At least, as her story shows, it was vanity, rather than love of thebeauteous Greek, Kallikrates, that stained the hands of She with hisinnocent blood and, amongst other ills, brought upon her the fearfulcurse of deathlessness while still inhabiting a sphere where Death islord of all. Had not Amenartas taunted her with the waning of herimperial beauty, eaten of the tooth of Time, never would she havedisobeyed the command of her master, the Prophet Noot, and enteredthat Fire of Immortality which she was set to guard.
Thus it seems that by denial she would have escaped the net of manywoes in which, perchance, she is still entangled and of Ayesha,Daughter of Wisdom yet Folly’s Slave, there would have been no tale totell and, from her parable of the eternal war of flesh and spiritthere would have been no lesson to be learned. But Vanity—or was itFate?—led her down another road.
The Editor.
II. Noot the Prophet Comes to Ozal
III. The Battle and the Flight
VII. The Quelling of the Storm
XVI. The Feast of the King of Kings