th hugeness, from its
show of savage power restrained; but the lady who sat in the golden
half-castle on its lofty back quickly drew away my gaze, and held it
immovable from then onwards with an infinite attraction.

I stood to my feet when the people first shouted at Phorenice's
approach, and remained in the porchway of my scarlet pavilion till her
vast steed had halted in the centre of the square, and then I advanced
across the pavement towards her.

"On your knees, my lord," said one of the chamberlains behind me, in a
scared whisper.

"At least with bent head," urged another.

But I had my own notions of what is due to one's own self-respect in
these matters, and I marched across the bare open space with head erect,
giving the Empress gaze for gaze. She was clearly summing me up. I was
frankly doing the like by her. Gods! but those few short seconds made me
see a woman such as I never imagined could have lived.

I know I have placed it on record earlier in this writing that, during
all the days of a long official life, women have had no influence over
me. But I have been quick to see that they often had a strong swaying
power over the policies of others, and as a consequence I have made it
my business to study them even as I have studied men. But this woman who
sat under the sacred snakes in her golden half-castle on the mammoth's
back, fairly baffled me. Of her thoughts I could read no single
syllable. I could see a body slight, supple, and beautifully moulded; in
figure rather small. Her face was a most perfect book of cleverness, yet
she was fair, too, beyond belief, with hair of a lovely ruddiness, cut
short in the new fashion, and bunching on her shoulders. And eyes! Gods!
who could plumb the depths of Phorenice's eyes, or find in mere tint a
trace of their heaven-made colour?

It was plain, also, that she in her turn was searching me down to
my very soul, and it seemed that her scrutiny was not without its
satisfaction. She moved her head in little nods as I drew near, and when
I did the requisite obeisance permitted to my rank, she bade me in
a voice loud and clear enough for all at hand to hear, never to put
forehead on the ground again on her behalf so long as she ruled in
Atlantis.

"For others," she said, "it is fitting that they should do so, once,
twice, or several times, according to their rank and station, for I am
Empress, and they are all so far beneath me; but you are Deucalion, my
lord, a