What could you expect else from so small a portion of a man? Trust no one. This was fate. Fate cannot be evaded. Submit. It will be well in the sequel. We may be happy yet!’
“Again those words! and uttered by Miakus, too!
“My mind framed a desire to behold something of the future that should be as plain as the pictures of the past had been, and if there was any means whereby the blows of fate might be softened, any field in which to live and act free from the loneliness hitherto endured, and when next my eyes glanced through the magic tube, there passed across the field of vision a solitary human head and bust. So swiftly did it glide past that only an electric sense of its beauty remained with me, but there was a something that told me the head I saw was that of Evlambéa—that by woman alone could redemption come. But then the curse said, ‘A daughter of Ish,’ and she was a child of Japhet.
“Scarcely had this figure flitted by than the glass became clouded, black, and finally resumed the appearance it had when first taken from the box.
“ ‘Nothing further can be seen to-day,’ said Miakus, ‘I have already endowed you with priceless gifts. You can go forth to the world and heal the sick, restore the insane, make mirrors and the Elixir, and read the past and future, and yet all this is as nothing to that which you may expect after you shall have solemnly sworn to sleep the sleep of Sialam for me.’
“Readily acknowledging all he said, gratitude prompted me to assent, and the words were on my lips, when suddenly the same bust and head passed before me very slowly, within one foot of my face. It was unmistakably Evlambéa, and the countenance looked tearfully reproachful as it once more disappeared; but even as it did so there came a soft, low, musical voice, but sorrow-toned, saying: ‘When I am in danger you will know it, wherever you may be; when you are in danger you will see me, though seas between our bodies roll!’ The identical words uttered by the girl at the door of the chief’s cottage, years agone, when we had so sadly parted!
“Thus mysteriously warned, my consent was withheld. Miakus looked pitiful and disappointed. He said nothing, however, but silently repacked his paraphernalia, said he wished me well, and then, passing with me into the street, we struck hands and parted.
“It were useless attempting to describe my feelings, consequent upon these strange events. I could not help being grateful for the favors shown me by the Enigma, and yet was I certain that I had, by ghostly aid, triumphed over a great temptation, and that Miakus might, after all, mean me no good. Involuntarily clinging to the memory of the maiden of the valley, I blessed her from my soul, and offered up a prayer that, if it were possible, she might be the redeeming angel for whom my lonely soul so ardently longed and sighed.”