“‘Daughter,’ he said to me, ‘not once but again and again you have set up your will against mine in the past. Why then should I trouble myself to grant this desire of yours in the present, and save a man who is nothing to me?’ “I rose to my feet and answered, ‘I do not know, my Father, yet I am certain that for your own sake it will be well to do so. I am sure that of everything even you must give an account at last, great though you be, and who knows, perhaps one life which you have saved may turn the balance in your favour.’ “‘Surely the priest Bastin has been talking to you,’ he said. “‘He has,’ I answered, ‘and not he alone. Many voices have been talking to me.’” “What did you mean by that?” I asked. “It matters nothing what I meant, Humphrey. Be still and listen to my story. My father thought a while and answered: “‘I am jealous of this stranger. What is he but a short-lived half-barbarian such as we knew in the old days? And yet already you think more of him than you do of me, your father, the divine Oro who has lived a thousand years. At first I helped that physician to save him, but now I think I wish him dead.’ “‘If you let this man die, my Father,’ I answered, ‘then we part. Remember that I also have of the wisdom of our people, and can use it if I will.’ “‘Then save him yourself,’ he said. “‘Perhaps I shall, my Father,’ I answered, ‘but if so it will not be here. I say that if so we part and you shall be left to rule in your majesty alone.’ “Now this frightened the Lord Oro, for he has the weakness that he hates to be alone. “‘If I do what you will, do you swear never to leave me, Yva?’ he asked. ‘Know that if you will not swear, the man dies.’ “‘I swear,’ I answered—for your sake, Humphrey—though I did not love the oath. “Then he gave me a certain medicine to mix with the Life-water, and when you were almost gone that medicine cured you, though Bickley does not know it, as nothing else could have done. Now I have told you the truth, for your own ear only, Humphrey.” “Yva,” I asked, “why did you do all this for me?” “Humphrey, I do not know,” she answered, “but I think because I must. Now sleep a while.” CHAPTER XIX. The Proposals of Bastin and Bickley