o the giver. Oh! I string words ill, but they were not what I meant."

"No, Prince, because your royal ring is too large for one so small."

"How can you tell until you have tried? Also that is a fault which might
perhaps be mended."

Then he laughed, and she laughed also, but as yet she did not take the
ring.

"Have you seen Ana?" he went on. "I believe he set out to search for
you, in such a hurry indeed that he could scarcely finish his report to
me."

"Did he say that?"

"No, he only looked it. So much so that I suggested he should seek you
at once. He answered that he was going to rest after his long journey,
or perhaps I said that he ought to do so. I forget, as often one does,
on so beauteous a night when other thoughts seem nearer."

"Why did Ana wish to see me, Prince?"

"How can I tell? Why does a man who is still young--want to see a sweet
and beautiful lady? Oh! I remember. He had met your uncle at Tanis who
inquired as to your health. Perhaps that is why he wanted to see you."

"I do not wish to hear about my uncle at Tanis. He reminds me of too
many things that give pain, and there are nights when one wishes to
escape pain, which is sure to be found again on the morrow."

"Are you still of the same mind about returning to your people?" he
asked, more earnestly.

"Surely. Oh! do not say that you will send me hence to----"

"Laban, Lady?"

"Laban amongst others. Remember, Prince, that I am one under a curse. If
I return to Goshen, in this way or in that, soon I shall die."

"Ana says that your uncle Jabez declares that the mad fellow who tried
to murder you had no authority to curse and much less to kill you. You
must ask him to tell you all."

"Yet the curse will cling and crush me at the last. How can I, one
lonely woman, stand against the might of the people of Israel and their
priests?"

"Are you then lonely?"

"How can it be otherwise with an outcast, Prince?"

"No, it cannot be otherwise. I know it who am also an outcast."

"At least there is her Highness your wife, who doubtless will come to
comfort you," she said, looking down.

"Her Highness will not come. If you had seen Ana, he would perhaps have
told you that she has sworn not to look upon my face again, unless above
it shines a crown."

"Oh! how can a woman be so cruel? Surely, Prince, such a stab must cut
you to the heart," she exclaimed, with a little cry of pity.

"Her Highness is not only a woman; she is a Princes