Having heard and debated this, the Queen turned abruptly to the priest.
"You have heard, priest. This day a man shall marry me. If no man marries me, these three men shall be offered up on your altar. So shall be offered up this woman, who, it would seem, would put shame upon me by having me less than she."
Still, she addressed the priest, although her message was for the others.
"There are three men of them, one of whom, long cycles before he was born, was destined to marry me. So, priest, I say, take the captives away into some other apartment, and let them decide among themselves which is the man."
"Since it has been so long destined," Leoncia flamed forth, "then why put it to the chance of their decision? You know the man. Why put it to the risk? Name the man, Queen, and name him now."
M The man shall be selected in the way I have indicated," the Queen replied, as, at the same time, absently she tossed a pinch of powder into the great bowl and absently glanced therein. "So now depart, and let the inevitable choice be made."
They were already moving away out of the room, when a cry from the Queen stopped them.
"Wait!" she ordered. "Come, Francis. I have seen something that concerns you. Come, gaze with me upon the Mirror of the World."
And while the others paused, Francis gazed with her upon the strange liquid metal surface. He saw himself in the library of his New York house, and he saw beside him the Lady Who Dreams, his arm around her. Next, he saw her curiosity at sight of the stock-ticker. As he tried to explain it to her, he glanced at the tape and read such disturbing information thereon that he sprang to the nearest telephone and, as the vision faded, saw himself calling up his broker.
"What was it you saw?" Leoncia questioned, as they passed out.