. "Is not the
dress of thy mothers good enough for thee? This is no time or place for
woman's vanities. Thou art not here to conquer, but to obey."

"Nay, be not wroth, my father," she answered softly; "perchance thou
knowest not that she whom I serve will have none of our Egyptian
dress; it is out of fashion. To wear it would have been to court
suspicion--also I came in haste." And as she spoke I saw that all the
while she watched me covertly through the long lashes which fringed her
modest eyes.

"Well, well," he said sharply, fixing his keen glance upon her face,
"doubtless thou speakest truth, Charmion. Be ever mindful of thy oath,
girl, and of the cause to which thou art sworn. Be not light-minded, and
I charge thee forget the beauty with which thou hast been cursed. For
mark thou this, Charmion: fail us but one jot, and vengeance shall fall
on thee--the vengeance of man and the vengeance of the Gods! To this
service," he continued, lashing himself to anger as he went on till his
great voice rang in the narrow room, "thou hast been bred; to this end
thou hast been instructed and placed where thou art to gain the ear of
that wicked wanton whom thou seemest to serve. See thou forget it not;
see that the luxury of yonder Court does not corrupt thy purity and
divert thy aim, Charmion," and his eyes flashed and his small form
seemed to grow till it attained to dignity--nay, almost to grandeur.

"Charmion," he went on, advancing towards her with outstretched finger,
"I say that at times I do not trust thee. But two nights gone I dreamed
I saw thee standing in the desert. I saw thee laugh and lift thy hand to
heaven, and from it fell a rain of blood; then the sky sank down on the
land of Khem and covered it. Whence came the dream, girl, and what is
its meaning? I have naught against thee as yet; but hearken! On the
moment that I have, though thou art of my kin, and I have loved thee--on
that moment, I say, I will doom those delicate limbs, which thou lovest
so much to show, to the kite and the jackal, and the soul within thee to
all the tortures of the Gods! Unburied shalt thou lie, and bodiless and
accursed shalt thou wander in Amenti!--ay, for ever and ever!"

He paused, for his sudden burst of passion had spent itself. But by it,
more clearly than before, I saw how deep a heart this man had beneath
the cloak of his merriness and simplicity of mien, and how fiercely the
mind within him was set upon his aim. As for th