eems to me that for a beginner your Majesty pulled somewhat hard,"
said Asti drily.

"Yes, Nurse, so hard that I think I have pulled your son off the
scaffold into a place of some honour, if he knows how to stay there,
though it was the Council and the lords and the ladies, who thought that
_they_ pulled. You see one must commence as one means to go on."

"Your Majesty is very clever; you will make a great Queen--if you do not
overpull yourself."

"Not half so clever as you were, Asti, when you made that monkey come
out of the vase," answered Tua, laughing somewhat hysterically. "Oh! do
not look innocent, I know it was your magic, for I could feel it passing
over my head. How did you do it, Asti?"

"If your Majesty will tell me how you made the lords of Egypt consent to
the sending of an armed expedition to Napata under the command of a lad,
a mere captain who had just killed its heir-apparent before their eyes,
which decree, if I know anything of Rames, will mean a war between Kesh
and Egypt, I will tell you how I made the monkey come out of the vase."

"Then I shall never learn, Nurse, for I can't because I don't know. It
came into my mind, as music comes into my throat, that is all. Rames
should have been beheaded at once, shouldn't he, for not letting that
black boar tusk him? Do you think he poured the wine over Amathel's head
on purpose?" and again she laughed.

"Yes, I suppose that he should have been killed, as he would have been
if your Majesty had not chanced to be so fond----"

"Talking of wine," broke in Tua, "give me a cup of it. The divine Prince
of Kesh who was to have been my husband--did you understand, Asti, that
they really meant to make that black barbarian my husband?--I say that
the divine Prince, who now sups with Osiris, drank so much that I could
not touch a drop, and I am tired and thirsty, and have still some things
to do to-night."

Asti went to a table where stood a flagon of wine wreathed in vine
leaves, and by it cups of glass, and filling one of them brought it to
Tua.

"Here's to the memory of the divine prince, and may he have left the
table of Osiris before I come there. And here's to the hand that sent
him thither," said Tua recklessly. Then she drained the wine, every drop
of it, and threw the cup to the marble floor where it shattered into
bits.

"What god has entered into your Majesty to-night?" asked Asti quietly.

"One that knows his own mind, I think," replied Tua.