lp, and
for a full minute I stood wondering at the words I had spoken to her.
Who was the daughter of Zaemon that she should induce me to change the
habit of a lifetime?

The slaves came at my bidding, and showed themselves anxious to deck
me with a thousand foolishnesses in the matter of robes and gauds, and
(what seemed to be the modern fashion of their class) holding out the
virtues of a score of perfumes and unguents. Their manner irritated
me. Clean I was already, and shaved; my hair was trim, and my robe was
unsoiled; and, considering these pressing attentions of theirs something
of an impertinence, I set them to beat one another as a punishment,
promising that if they did not do it with thoroughness, I would hand
them on to the brander to be marked with stripes which would endure.
It is strange, but a common menial can often surpass even a rebellious
general in power of ruffling one.

I had seen many strange sights that day, and undergone many new
sensations; but of all the things which came to my notice, Phorenice's
manner of summoning the guests to her feast surprised me most. Nay, it
did more; it shocked me profoundly; and I cannot say whether amazement
at her profanity, or wonder at her power, was for the moment strongest
in my breast. I sat in my chamber awaiting the summons, when gradually,
growing out of nothing, a sound fell upon my ear which increased in
volume with infinitely small graduations, till at last it became a
clanging din which hurt the ear with its fierceness; and then (I guessed
what was coming) the whole massive fabric of the pyramid trembled and
groaned and shook, as though it had been merely a child's wooden toy
brushed about by a strong man's sandal.

It was the portent served out yearly by the chiefs of the Priests' Clan
on the Sacred Mountain, when they bade all the world take count of their
sins. It was the sacred reminder that from roaring, raging fire, and
from the agony of monstrous earth-tremors, man had been born, and that
by these same agencies he would eventually be swallowed up--he and
the sins within his breast. And here the Empress was prostituting its
solemnities into a mere call to gluttony, and sign for ribald laughter
and sensuous display.

But how had she acquired the authority to do this thing? Who was she
that she should tamper with those dimly understood powers, the forces
that dwell within the liquid heart of our mother earth? Had there been
treachery? Had some