she gives me leave, I will clear away this rabble which
clamours outside the walls. I must begin to prove my uses."

"I am told you are a pretty fighter," said she. "Well, I hold some small
skill in arms myself, and have a conceit that I am something of a judge.
To-morrow we will take a taste of battle together. But to-day I
must carry through the honourable reception I have planned for you,
Deucalion. The feast will be set ready soon, and you will wish to make
ready for the feast. There are chambers here selected for your use, and
stored with what is needful. Ylga will show you their places."

We waited, the fan-girl and I, till Phorenice had passed out of the glow
of the light-jet, and had left the hall of waiting through a doorway
amongst the shadows of its farther angle, and then (the girl taking a
lamp and leading) we also threaded our way through the narrow mazes of
the pyramid.

Everywhere the air was full of perfumes, and everywhere the passages
turned and twisted and doubled through the solid stone of the pyramid,
so that strangers might have spent hours--yes, or days--in search before
they came to the chamber they desired. There was a fine cunningness
about those forgotten builders who set up this royal pyramid. They had
no mind that kings should fall by the hand of vulgar assassins who might
come in suddenly from outside. And it is said also that the king of the
time, to make doubly sure, killed all that had built the pyramid, or
seen even the lay of its inner stones.

But the fan-girl led the way with the lamp swinging in her hand, as one
accustomed to the mazes. Here she doubled, there she turned, and here
she stopped in the middle of a blank wall to push a stone, which swung
to let us pass. And once she pressed at the corner of a flagstone on the
floor, which reared up to the thrust of her foot, and showed us a stair
steep and narrow. That we descended, coming to the foot of an inclined
way which led us upward again; and so by degrees we came unto the
chamber which had been given for my use.

"There is raiment in all these chests which stand by the walls,"
said the girl, "and jewels and gauds in that bronze coffer. They are
Phorenice's first presents, she bid me say, and but a small earnest of
what is to come. My Lord Deucalion can drop his simplicity now, and fig
himself out in finery to suit the fashion."

"Girl," I said sharply, "be more decorous with your tongue, and spare me
such small advice."