I bowed to her and drank. I suppose the fluid was water, but to me it tasted more like strong champagne, dashed with Château Yquem. It was delicious. More, its effects were distinctly peculiar. Something quick and subtle ran through my veins; something that for a few moments seemed to burn away the obscureness which blurs our thought. I began to understand several problems that had puzzled me, and then lost their explanations in the midst of light, inner light, I mean. Moreover, of a sudden it seemed to me as though a window had been opened in the heart of that Glittering Lady who stood beside me. At least I knew that it was full of wonderful knowledge, wonderful memories and wonderful hopes, and that in the latter two of these I had some part; what part I could not tell. Also I knew that my heart was open to her and that she saw in it something which caused her to marvel and to sigh. In a few seconds, thirty perhaps, all this was gone. Nothing remained except that I felt extremely strong and well, happier, too, than I had been for years. Mutely I asked her for more of the water, but she shook her head and, taking the cup from me, filled it again and gave it to Bickley, who drank. He flushed, seemed to lose the self-control which was his very strong characteristic, and said in a rather thick voice: “Curious! but I do not think at this moment there is any operation that has ever been attempted which I could not tackle single-handed and with success.” Then he was silent, and Bastin’s turn came. He drank rather noisily, after his fashion, and began: “My dear young lady, I think the time has come when I should expound to you—” Here he broke off and commenced singing very badly, for his voice was somewhat raucous: From Greenland’s icy mountains, From India’s coral strand, Where Afric’s sunny fountains Roll down their golden sand. Ceasing from melody, he added: “I determined that I would drink nothing intoxicating while I was on this island that I might be a shining light in a dark place, and now I fear that quite unwittingly I have broken what I look upon as a promise.” Then he, too, grew silent. “Come,” said Yva, “my father, the Lord Oro, awaits you.”