He could feel the soft contact of her body, even her fluttering heartbeats answering his.

It was the moment of the supreme test, the parting of the ways--to the heights whose pinnacles reach to the heaven of Perfect Knowledge, or to the abysses whose lowest depths are the roof of hell; for there is but one heaven and one hell, and their names are Knowledge and Ignorance.
There lay the fulfilment of his vows, the renunciation of the lower life with all its potent witcheries of the senses, with all its exquisite delights and glittering prizes, fame and honours, power and wealth, and, dearest of all, the love of woman.
Here, clasped in his arms, stood Nitocris, her hands still resting lightly on his shoulders, her head lying on his breast, her eyes upturned, the star-beams swimming in their luminous depths.
"Nefer, beloved, answer me!" The stars grew dim, and the solid floor of the terrace shook under his feet.

He bent his head and laid his lips upon hers.
"Thou art answered, O Nitocris--even unto death and the life beyond!" Her lips returned his kisses--kisses that were curses--and then for many minutes they conversed in hurried whispers.

At last she slipped out of his arms and left him, his lips burning from the clinging touch of hers, and his heart cold with a fear that was greater than the fear of death.
He clasped his hands to his temples and looked up at the coldly shining Isis Star, and through the silence there came to his soul in the speech that is never heard by the ears of flesh the fateful words: "Once only is it given to mortals to look into the eyes of Isis.

He who looks and turns his gaze aside has found and lost.".