upted.

Ta-user laughed very softly and delivered the young artist a level look
of understanding from her topaz eyes. "I fear thou art indeed
improvident," she continued, "if thou leavest thy future to others."

"Then all the world is improvident, since it belongeth to others to
shape every man's future. But Hotep, the lawgiver, denies this thing.
He holds that every man builds for himself."

"Right, Hotep!" Rameses exclaimed. "It was such belief that made a
world-conqueror of my grandsire."

"Nay, thy pardon, O my Prince. Hotep's counsel will not always hold,"
Kenkenes objected.

"Give me to know wherein it faileth," the prince demanded.

"Alas! in a thousand things. In truth a man even draws his breath by
the leave of others."

"By the puny god, Harpocrates!" the prince cried, scoffing. "That is
the weakest avowal I have heard in a moon!"

Kenkenes flushed, and Rameses, recovering from his amusement, pressed
his advantage.

"Let me give thee a bit of counsel from mine own store that thou mayest
look with braver eyes on life. Take the world by the throat and it
will do thy will."

"Again I dispute thee, O Rameses."

"Name thy witness," the prince insisted. Kenkenes leaned on his elbow
toward him.

"Canst thou force a woman to love thee?" he asked simply.

Ta-user glanced at the prince and the sleepy black eyes of the heir
narrowed.

"Let us get back to the issue," he said. "We spoke of others shaping
the future of men. You may not force a woman to love you, but no love
or lack of love of a woman should misshape the destiny of any man."

"That is a matter of difference in temperament, my Prince," Ta-user put
in.

"It may be, but it is the expression of mine own ideas," he answered
roughly.

The lashes of the princess were smitten down immediately and Siptah's
canine teeth glittered for a moment, one set upon the other. Kenkenes
patted his sandal impatiently and looked another way. His gaze fell on
Io. She had lost interest in the game. The color had receded from her
cheeks and now and again her lips trembled. Kenkenes looked and saw
that Seti's eyes were adoring Ta-user, who smiled at him. With a
sudden rush of heat through his veins, the young artist turned again to
Io, and watched till he caught her eye. With a look he invited her to
come to him. She laid down the dice, during the momentary abstraction
of her playing-mates, and murmuring that she was tired, came and sat at
the