Lilith

The princess stood waiting me, in a robe embroidered with argentine rings and discs, rectangles and lozenges,
close together−−a silver mail. It fell unbroken from her neck and hid her feet, but its long open sleeves left
her arms bare.
In the room was a table of ivory, bearing cakes and fruit, an ivory jug of milk, a crystal jug of wine of a pale
rose−colour, and a white loaf.
"Here we do not kill to eat," she said; "but I think you will like what I can give you."
I told her I could desire nothing better than what I saw. She seated herself on a couch by the table, and made
me a sign to sit by her.
She poured me out a bowlful of milk, and, handing me the loaf, begged me to break from it such a piece as I
liked. Then she filled from the wine−jug two silver goblets of grotesquely graceful workmanship.
"You have never drunk wine like this!" she said.
I drank, and wondered: every flower of Hybla and Hymettus must have sent its ghost to swell the soul of that
wine!
"And now that you will be able to listen," she went on, "I must do what I can to make myself intelligible to
you. Our natures, however, are so different, that this may not be easy. Men and women live but to die; we,
that is such as I−−we are but a few−−live to live on. Old age is to you a horror; to me it is a dear desire: the
older we grow, the nearer we are to our perfection. Your perfection is a poor thing, comes soon, and lasts but
a little while; ours is a ceaseless ripening. I am not yet ripe, and have lived thousands of your years−−how
many, I never cared to note. The everlasting will not be measured.
"Many lovers have sought me; I have loved none of them: they sought but to enslave me; they sought me but
as the men of my city seek gems of price.−−When you found me, I found a man! I put you to the test; you
stood it; your love was genuine!−−It was, however, far from ideal−−far from such love as I would have. You
loved me truly, but not with true love. Pity has, but is not love. What woman of any world would return love
for pity? Such love as yours was then, is hateful to me. I knew that, if you saw me as I am, you would love
me−−like the rest of them−−to have and to hold: I would none of that either! I would be otherwise loved! I
would have a love that outlived hopelessness, outmeasured indifference, hate, scorn! Therefore did I put on
cruelty, despite, ingratitude. When I left you, I had shown myself such as you could at least no longer follow
from pity: I was no longer in need of you! But you must satisfy my desire or set me free−−prove yourself
priceless or worthless! To satisfy the hunger of my love, you must follow me, looking for nothing, not
gratitude, not even pity in return!−−follow and find me, and be content with merest presence, with scantest
forbearance!−− I, not you, have failed; I yield the contest."
She looked at me tenderly, and hid her face in her hands. But I had caught a flash and a sparkle behind the
tenderness, and did not believe her. She laid herself out to secure and enslave me; she only fascinated me!
Lilith
"Beautiful princess," I said, "let me understand how you came to be found in such evil plight."
"There are things I cannot explain," she replied, "until you have become capable of understanding
them−−which can only be when love is grown perfect. There are many things so hidden from you that you
cannot even wish to know them; but any question you can put, I can in some measure answer.
"I had set out to visit a part of my dominions occupied by a savage dwarf−people, strong and fierce, enemies
to law and order, opposed to every kind of progress−−an evil race. I went alone, fearing nothing, unaware of
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