"The hearts of men, Istar, are not always known to themselves. Mine I could not show you."
Istar thought for a little while in troubled silence. Then she asked once more, not hopefully: "Your loves and hates, your joys and sorrows, your hopes and fears—knowing these, could I not understand them and you?"
"It may be. I do not know."
"Then let me hear, that I may judge."
"All of them, Istar—love, hate, hope, fear, joy, sorrow—are woven around my city, Babylon, the gate of god. My love is for her and my fear for her enemies. As she is the greatest of all cities, so is she the most loved and the most hated. In her lie all my joy and sorrow. In her dwell many that I love, some that I hate, one that I fear. But this—"
"This will not open to me your secret heart, Belshazzar. It is an affectation."
"By the power of the twelve great gods—it is not!"
"Then there are two lives in you: this one, and another that is hidden."
Belshazzar looked at her again strangely. "It is true," he said, at length, a curious smile curving his lips.
"It is of this second life that you must tell me."