, a motion of the eye sufficed to manifest his will,
which was immediately divined by a thousand attentive, restless eyes;
performance followed his thought, as the lightning follows the
thunder-clap. But with desire he seemed to have given up his granitic
majesty; he spoke and explained himself like a mortal.

Tahoser was a prey to singular emotion. However much she felt the honour
of having inspired love in the man preferred of Phre, in the favoured of
Ammon Ra, the destroyer of nations, in the terrifying, solemn and superb
being upon whom she scarce dared to gaze, she felt no sympathy for him,
and the idea of belonging to him filled her with terror and repulsion.
To the Pharaoh who had carried off her body she could not give her soul,
which had remained with Poeri and Ra'hel; and as the King appeared to
await a reply, she said,--

"How is it, O King, that amid all the maids of Egypt your glance should
have fallen on me,--on me whom so many others surpass in beauty, in
talent, in gifts of all sorts? How is it that in the midst of clumps of
white, blue, and rose lotus, with open corollas, with delicate scent,
you have chosen the modest blade of grass which nothing marks?"

"I know not, but I know that you alone exist in this world for me, and
that I shall make kings' daughters your servants."

"But suppose I do not love you?" said Tahoser, timidly.

"What care I, if I love you," replied the Pharaoh. "Have not the most
beautiful women in the world thrown themselves down upon my threshold
weeping and moaning, tearing their cheeks, beating their breasts,
plucking out their hair, and have they not died imploring a glance of
love which never fell upon them? Never has passion in any one made my
heart of brass beat within my stony breast. Resist me, hate if you
will,--you will only be more charming; for the first time an obstacle
will have come in the way of my will, and I shall know how to overcome
it."

"But suppose I love another?" continued Tahoser, more boldly.

At this suggestion the eyebrows of the Pharaoh were bent; he violently
bit his lower lip, in which his teeth left white marks, and he pressed
to the point of hurting her the fingers of the maid which he still held.
Then he cooled down again, and said in a low, deep voice,--

"When you shall have lived in this palace, in the midst of these
splendours, surrounded by the atmosphere of my love, you will forget
everything as does he who eats nepenthe. Your past