I sent for you here to be my minister, and bear with me
the burden of ruling."

"There should be better men in broad Atlantis."

"There are not, my lord, and I who know them all by heart tell you so.
They are all enamoured of my poor person; they weary me with their empty
phrases and their importunities; and, though they are always brimming
with their cries of service, their own advancement and the filling of
their own treasuries ever comes first with them. So I have sent for you,
Deucalion, the one strong man in all the world. You at least will not
sigh to be my lover?"

I saw her watching for my answer from the corner of her eyes. "The
Empress," I said, "is my mistress, and I will be an honest minister to
her. With Phorenice, the woman, it is likely that I shall have little
enough to do. Besides, I am not the sort that sports with this toy they
call love."

"And yet you are a personable man enough," she said rather thoughtfully.
"But that still further proves your strength, Deucalion. You at least
will not lose your head through weak infatuation for my poor looks and
graces."--She turned to the girl who stood behind us.--"Ylga, fan not so
violently."

Our talk broke off then for the moment, and I had time to look about
me. We were passing through the chief street in the fairest, the most
wonderful city this world has ever seen. I had left it a score of years
before, and was curious to note its increase.

In public buildings the city had certainly made growth; there were
new temples, new pyramids, new palaces, and statuary everywhere. Its
greatness and magnificence impressed me more strongly even than usual,
returning to it as I did from such a distance of time and space, for,
though the many cities of Yucatan might each of them be princely, this
great capital was a place not to be compared with any of them. It was
imperial and gorgeous beyond descriptive words.

Yet most of all was I struck by the poverty and squalor which stood in
such close touch with all this magnificence. In the throngs that lined
the streets there were gaunt bodies and hungry faces everywhere. Here
and there stood one, a man or a woman, as naked as a savage in Europe,
and yet dull to shame. Even the trader, with trumpery gauds on his coat,
aping the prevailing fashion for display, had a scared, uneasy look to
his face, as though he had forgotten the mere name of safety, and hid a
frantic heart with his tawdry outward vauntings of prosper