“Ildiko refuses to be comforted because of thy continued absence from our house. She grieves for thy affliction, and sends her best thoughts.”
“Beauty and goodness are the crown of fair Ildiko. It is not possible for me to do more than receive such flattering unction. I am indeed undone,” he made answer, catching his breath painfully.
“The priestess Kerœcia, and her sweet maids are much concerned for thy misfortune. Hanabusa has already been twice to hear if reason came back to thee.”
“I pray thee leave me,” cried Orondo, piteously. “My heart!” he gasped, as the chief shaman bent over him hurriedly, in response to Setos’s call.
“All matters of importance must rest while this man regains control of his better physique,” said the shaman, authoritatively. “It were cruel to tax him at this time.”
“Nothing except friendly greeting passed between us,” declared Setos, much exercised at the sudden bad turn apparent in Orondo.
“I will come again at nightfall,” he said.
“Be thou content with inquiry, only,” returned the shaman, still frowning over the complete undoing of all his labor.
“The sun must be on the earth’s magnetic meridian before quiet will come again to our patient,” said the chief shaman, as he prepared to go out for an airing, after working over Orondo for one hour.
“The sun will not be below the horizon until the seventh marking of the gnomon, and until that time we can only wait and watch,” he said, in answer to Yermah’s anxious question. “Setos has injured his rest greatly, but he has asked for thee more than once. If thou wilt exercise caution, thou mayst go to him.”