{"product_id":"2940012791245","title":"AYESHA","description":"\"Here ends this history so far as it concerns science and the\u003cbr\u003e     outside world. What its end will be as regards Leo and myself is\u003cbr\u003e     more than I can guess. But we feel that it is not reached. . . .\u003cbr\u003e     Often I sit alone at night, staring with the eyes of my mind into\u003cbr\u003e     the blackness of unborn time, and wondering in what shape and form\u003cbr\u003e     the great drama will be finally developed, and where the scene of\u003cbr\u003e     its next act will be laid. And when, ultimately, that _final_\u003cbr\u003e     development occurs, as I have no doubt it must and will occur, in\u003cbr\u003e     obedience to a fate that never swerves and a purpose which cannot\u003cbr\u003e     be altered, what will be the part played therein by that beautiful\u003cbr\u003e     Egyptian Amenar-tas, the Princess of the royal house of the\u003cbr\u003e     Pharaohs, for the love of whom the priest Kallikrates broke his\u003cbr\u003e     vows to Isis, and, pursued by the vengeance of the outraged\u003cbr\u003e     goddess, fled down the coast of Lybia to meet his doom at Kor?\"--\u003cbr\u003e     _She_, Silver Library Edition, p. 277.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDEDICATION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy dear Lang,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe appointed years--alas! how many of them--are gone by, leaving Ayesha\u003cbr\u003elovely and loving and ourselves alive. As it was promised in the Caves\u003cbr\u003eof Kor _She_ has returned again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo you therefore who accepted the first, I offer this further history of\u003cbr\u003eone of the various incarnations of that Immortal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy hope is that after you have read her record, notwithstanding her\u003cbr\u003esubtleties and sins and the shortcomings of her chronicler (no easy\u003cbr\u003eoffice!) you may continue to wear your chain of \"loyalty to our lady\u003cbr\u003eAyesha.\" Such, I confess, is still the fate of your old friend\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eH. RIDER HAGGARD.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDITCHINGHAM, 1905.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAUTHOR'S NOTE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot with a view of conciliating those readers who on principle object to\u003cbr\u003esequels, but as a matter of fact, the Author wishes to say that he does\u003cbr\u003enot so regard this book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRather does he venture to ask that it should be considered as the\u003cbr\u003econclusion of an imaginative tragedy (if he may so call it) whereof one\u003cbr\u003ehalf has been already published.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis conclusion it was always his desire to write should he be destined\u003cbr\u003eto live through those many years which, in obedience to his original\u003cbr\u003edesign, must be allowed to lapse between the events of the first and\u003cbr\u003esecond parts of the romance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn response to many enquiries he may add that the name Ayesha, which\u003cbr\u003esince the days of the prophet Mahomet, who had a wife so called, and\u003cbr\u003eperhaps before them, has been common in the East, should be pronounced\u003cbr\u003e_Assha_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eINTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVerily and indeed it is the unexpected that happens! Probably if there\u003cbr\u003ewas one person upon the earth from whom the Editor of this, and of a\u003cbr\u003ecertain previous history, did not expect to hear again, that person was\u003cbr\u003eLudwig Horace Holly. This, too, for a good reason; he believed him to\u003cbr\u003ehave taken his departure from the earth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Mr. Holly last wrote, many, many years ago, it was to transmit the\u003cbr\u003emanuscript of _She_, and to announce that he and his ward, Leo Vincey,\u003cbr\u003ethe beloved of the divine Ayesha, were about to travel to Central Asia\u003cbr\u003ein the hope, I suppose, that there she would fulfil her promise and\u003cbr\u003eappear to them again.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOften I have wondered, idly enough, what happened to them there; whether\u003cbr\u003ethey were dead, or perhaps droning their lives away as monks in some\u003cbr\u003eThibetan Lamasery, or studying magic and practising asceticism under\u003cbr\u003ethe tuition of the Eastern Masters trusting that thus they would build a\u003cbr\u003ebridge by which they might pass to the side of their adored Immortal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow at length, when I had not thought of them for months, without a\u003cbr\u003esingle warning sign, out of the blue as it were, comes the answer to\u003cbr\u003ethese wonderings!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo think--only to think--that I, the Editor aforesaid, from its\u003cbr\u003eappearance suspecting something quite familiar and without interest,\u003cbr\u003epushed aside that dingy, unregistered, brown-paper parcel directed in an\u003cbr\u003eunknown hand, and for two whole days let it lie forgotten. Indeed there\u003cbr\u003eit might be lying now, had not another person been moved to curiosity,\u003cbr\u003eand opening it, found within a bundle of manuscript badly burned upon\u003cbr\u003ethe back, and with this two letters addressed to myself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlthough so great a time had passed since I saw it, and it was shaky\u003cbr\u003enow because of the author's age or sickness, I knew the writing at\u003cbr\u003eonce--nobody ever made an \"H\" with that peculiar twirl under it except\u003cbr\u003eMr. Holly. I tore open the sealed envelope, and sure enough the first\u003cbr\u003ething my eye fell upon was the signature, _L. H. Holly_. It is long\u003cbr\u003esince I read anything so eagerly as I did that letter. Here it is:--","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47152570532080,"sku":"2940012791245","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012791245_p0.jpg?v=1763572637","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012791245","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}