plendid eyes. Indeed,
there was something so terrible in those eyes that the beholders who
discovered them thus suddenly, shrank back, whispering to each other
that here sat a goddess, not a woman. For in her calmness, her proud
beauty and her silence, she seemed like an immortal, one victorious who
had triumphed over death, not a woman who for seven days had starved
within a tower.

They shrank back, they huddled themselves together in the doorway, and
there remained whispering till the growing light fell on them also. But
the figure on the throne took no heed, only stared over their heads as
though it were lost in mystery and thought.

At length Kaku, gathering courage, said to Abi:

"O Prince, there is your bride, such a bride as never man had before. Go
now and take her," and all the others echoed:

"Go now, O Prince, and take her."

Thus adjured for very shame's sake Abi advanced, looking often behind
him, till he came to the foot of the throne, and stood there bowing.

For a long while he stood bowing thus, till he grew weary indeed, for
he knew not what to say. Then suddenly a clear and silvery voice spoke
above him, asking:

"What do you here, Lord of Memphis? Why are you not in the cell where
Pharaoh bound you? Oh! I remember--the footstool-bearer, Merytra, your
paid spy, let you out, did she not? Why is she not here with Kaku the
Sorcerer, who fashioned the enchanted image that did Pharaoh to death?
Is it because she stays to doctor those false lips of hers that were
cut last night before you went to ask yonder Kaku to interpret a certain
dream which came to you?"

"How did you learn these things? Have you spies in my palace, O Queen?"

"Yes, my uncle, I have spies in your palace and everywhere. What Amen
sees his daughter knows. Now you have come to lead me away to be your
wife, have you not? Well, I await you, I am ready. Do it if you dare!"

"If I dare? Why should I not dare, O Queen?" asked Abi in a doubtful
voice.

"Surely that question is one for you to answer, Count of Memphis and its
subject nomes. Yet tell me this--why did the magic crystal burst asunder
without cause in the chamber of Kaku last night, and why do you suppose
that Kaku interpreted to you all the meaning of your dream--he who will
never tell the truth unless it be beneath the rods?"

"I do not know, Queen," answered Abi, "but with Kaku I can speak
later, if need be after the fashion you suggest," and he glanced at the
mag