rhaps
Mermes was with his wife, and if so she could not enter. No, it was
Asti's voice, and, listening, she could hear her murmuring prayers or
invocations in solemn tones. She pushed open the door and entered. A
little lamp burned in the room, and by its feeble light she saw the
white-robed Asti, whose long hair fell about her, standing with upturned
eyes and arms outstretched to Heaven. Suddenly Asti saw her also, though
but dimly for she stood in the dense shadow, and knew her not.

"Advance, O thou Ghost, and declare thyself, for never was thy help more
needed," she said.

"It is no ghost, but I," said Tua. "What dealings are these that you
have with ghosts at this deadest hour of the night, Asti? Do not enough
terrors encompass us that you must needs call on your familiar spirits
to add to them?"

"I call on the spirits to save us from them, Queen, for, like you, I
think that we are set in the midst of perils. This night is full of
sorcery; I scent it in the air, and strive to match spell with spell.
But why do you not sleep?"

"I cannot, Asti, I cannot. Fear has got hold of me. Oh! I would that we
had never come to this hateful Memphis, or set eyes upon its ill-omened
lord, that foul brute who seeks to make a wife of me."

"Be not afraid, Lady," said Asti, throwing her arms about Tua's slight
and quivering form. "To-morrow morning we march; I have it from Pharaoh,
and already the guard make preparations, while as for the accursed Abi,
he is in prison."

"There is no prison that will hold him, Asti, save the grave. Oh! why
did not my Father command him to be slain, as I would have done? Then,
at least, we should be free of him, and he could never marry me."

"Because it was otherwise decreed, O Neter-Tua, and Pharaoh must fulfil
his fate and ours, for though he is so gentle, none can turn him."

As she spoke the words, somewhere, far beneath them, arose a cry, a
voice of one in dread or woe, and with it the sound of feet upon the
stairs.

"What passes?" said Asti, leaping to the door.

"Pharaoh is dead or dying," answered the terrified voice without. "Let
her Majesty come to Pharaoh."

They threw on their garments, they ran down the narrow stair and across
the halls till they came to the chamber of Pharaoh. There upon his
bed he lay and about him were the physicians of his Court. He was
speechless, but his eyes were open, and he knew his daughter, for,
raising his hand feebly, he beckoned to her, and