s me
his brother; and while I stand as if I were the bulwark of his authority
I am diligently undermining it. My whole existence is a lie."

"But it will be truth," cried Katuti, "as soon as the Gods allow you to
be--as you are--the real king of this country."

"Strange!" said Ani smiling, Ameni, this very day, used almost exactly
the same words. The wisdom of priests, and that of women, have much in
common, and they fight with the same weapons. You use words instead of
swords, traps instead of lances, and you cast not our bodies, but our
souls, into irons."

"Do you blame or praise us for it?" said the widow. "We are in any case
not impotent allies, and therefore, it seems to me, desirable ones."

"Indeed you are," said Ani smiling. "Not a tear is shed in the land,
whether it is shed for joy or for sorrow, for which in the first instance
a priest or a woman is not responsible. Seriously, Katuti--in nine great
events out of ten you women have a hand in the game. You gave the first
impulse to all that is plotting here, and I will confess to you that,
regardless of all consequences, I should in a few hours have given up my
pretensions to the throne, if that woman Bent-Anat had said 'yes' instead
of 'no.'"

"You make me believe," said Katuti, "that the weaker sex are gifted with
stronger wills than the nobler. In marrying us you style us, 'the
mistress of the house,' and if the elders of the citizens grow infirm, in
this country it is not the sons but the daughters that must be their
mainstay. But we women have our weaknesses, and chief of these is
curiosity.--May I ask on what ground Bent-Anat dismissed you?"

"You know so much that you may know all," replied Ani. "She admitted me
to speak to her alone. It was yet early, and she had come from the
temple, where the weak old prophet had absolved her from uncleanness; she
met me, bright, beautiful and proud, strong and radiant as a Goddess, and
a princess. My heart throbbed as if I were a boy, and while she was
showing me her flowers I said to myself: 'You are come to obtain through
her another claim to the throne.' And yet I felt that, if she consented
to be mine, I would remain the true brother, the faithful Regent of
Rameses, and enjoy happiness and peace by her side before it was too
late. If she refused me then I resolved that fate must take its way, and,
instead of peace and love, it must be war for the crown snatched from my
fathers. I tried to woo her, but she