Followed the old, old ceremonies, the music of Greek of the earliest centuries, the readings, the prayers, the promises. Then Aryenis and I alone before the white-locked priest with the ascetic face, who seemed to have stepped straight out of some old stained-glass window, as I slipped the flat heavy gold bangle over her elbow to show that we were one for so long as life should last, and kissed her two hands in Sakae fashion in token of all loyalty. Thereafter she kissed me once upon the forehead, and we turned to walk down the aisle under an arch of blades. Then the slow ride back to the palace, the banquet, the toasts, the greetings, until well on in the afternoon we rode out of the south gate--thronged with all our friends, and, it seemed to me, with half the city as well to see us go--and took the Aornos road. “Content, sweetheart?” said I, as the last glimpse of Miletis vanished in the trees. “All content, fairy prince,” said she slowly. “And you? Have you found the things that really matter?” “All of them, Shahzadi, since I’ve found you, and with you go all the rest.” “And you are quite sure what they are?” asked my lady, with questioning eyes. “Quite sure. Your companionship, your friendship, you when I’m tired or lonely, you at the end of every day, you and I just absolutely one person, and all the real intimacy and happiness that go with that, the only foundation for wedded life.” “In fact, just you and me, to put it shortly,” said Aryenis laughing happily. “Yes, Shahzadi, just that. And you will show me that you want that--and me?” “Must I show you?” “Always. It isn’t only women that want to be told and shown the things they know. Men also sometimes. You see a man may come--probably will come--to disbelieve the things he knows, or thought he knew, unless he’s shown them clearly and repeatedly.” “And then, O Harilek?” “And then, Shahzadi, good-bye to happiness. Will you say good-bye to it?” “Never!” said Aryenis, decisively. “I shall always show you the things you know. I shall just keep your eyes and ears, your mind and your every sense, so full of them that you’ll never have an instant to think of anything or any one except them and me. That please you, man of mine?” “Yes, lady mine. That sketches heaven as in your song, ‘Just a man and a woman, all in all.’ One can’t want more than that.” Then we rode in silence a space up the lane to Paulos’s house, where Aryenis had first talked of the things that matter, and of that greatest of gifts that man or woman might give if they had the right marks. The sun sank behind the western hills, leaving the eastern wall that ringed round Sakaeland one vivid glow of crimson snow above the long purple and lilac shadows under the cloudless sky.