and, by slow degrees, the music throbbed itself to silence.

Look! white-faced, trembling, Rames clung to a pillar in his chamber,
while Tua sank back upon her chair, and the harp she held slipped from
her hand down upon the floor.

"Whence came that harp?" he gasped. "Surely there are not two such in
the world? Woman, you have stolen it. Nay, how can you have stolen the
music, and the voice as well? Lady, forgive me, I have no thought of
evil, but oh! grant me a boon. Why, I will tell you afterwards. Grant me
a boon--let me look upon your face."

Tua lifted her hands, and undid the fastening of her veil, which slipped
from her to her feet, showing her in the rich array of a prince of
Egypt. His eyes met her beautiful eyes, and for a while they gazed upon
each other like folk who dream.

"What trick is this?" he said angrily at last. "Before me stands the
Star of Amen, Egypt's anointed Queen. The harp she bears was the royal
gift of the Prince of Kesh, he who fell that night beneath my sword. The
voice is Egypt's voice, the song is Egypt's song. Nay, how can it be?
I am mad, you are magicians come to mock me, for that Star, Amen's
daughter, reigns a thousand miles away with the lord she chose, Abi, her
own uncle, he who, they say, murdered Pharaoh. Get you gone, Sorceress,
lest I cause the priests of Amen, whereof you also make a mock, to cast
you to the flames for blasphemy."

Slowly, very slowly, Tua opened the wrappings about her throat,
revealing the Sign of Life that from her birth was stamped above her
bosom.

"When they see this holy mark, think you that the priests of Amen will
cast me to the flames, O Royal Son of Mermes?" asked Tua softly.

"Why not?" he answered. "If you have power to lie in one thing, you have
power to lie in all. She who can steal the loveliness of Egypt's self,
can also steal the signet of the god."

"Say, did you, O Rames, also steal that other signet on your hand, a
Queen's gift, I think, that once a Pharaoh wore? Say also how did you
lose the little finger of that hand? Was it perchance in the maw of a
certain god that dwells in the secret pool of a temple at holy Thebes?"

So Tua spake, and waited a while, but Rames said nothing. He opened his
mouth to answer, indeed, but a dumbness sealed his lips.

"Nurse," she went on presently, "I cannot persuade this Lord that I am
Egypt and no other. Try you."

So Asti loosed her black veil, and let it fall about her feet. He stared