Amada, having acquired all the
learning possible, had taken her first vows to Isis, which she said she
would not break for any man on earth although she might have done so
without crime. Therefore, although I was dear to her, as a brother would
have been had she had one, and she swore that she had never even thought
of another man, she refused so much as to think of marrying who dreamed
only of the heavenly perfections of the lady Isis."

"Ump!" said Bes. "We Ethiopians have Priestesses of the Grasshopper, or
the Grasshopper's wife, but they do not think of her like that. I hope
that one day something stronger than herself will not cause the lady
Amada to break her vows to the heavenly Isis. Only then, perhaps, it may
be for the sake of another man who did not go off to the East on account
of such fool's talk. But here is a village and the horses are spent. Let
us stop and eat, as I suppose even the lady Amada does sometimes."

On the following afternoon we crossed the Nile, and towards sunset
entered the vast and ancient city of Memphis. On its white walls floated
the banners of the Great King which Bes pointed out to me, saying that
wherever we went in the whole world, it seemed that we could never be
free from those accursed symbols.

"May I live to spit upon them and cast them into the moat," I answered
savagely, for as I drew near to Amada they grew ten times more hateful
to me than they had been before.

In truth I was nearer to Amada than I thought, for after we had
passed the enclosure of the temple of Ptah, the most wonderful and the
mightiest in the whole world, we came to the temple of Isis. There near
to the pylon gate we met a procession of her priests and priestesses
advancing to offer the evening sacrifice of song and flowers, clad, all
of them, in robes of purest white. It was a day of festival, so singers
went with them. After the singers came a band of priestesses bearing
flowers, in front of whom walked another priestess shaking a _sistrum_
that made a little tinkling music.

Even at a distance there was something about the tall and slender shape
of this priestess that stirred me. When we came nearer I saw why, for it
was Amada herself. Through the thin veil she wore I could see her dark
and tender eyes set beneath the broad brow that was so full of thought,
and the sweet, curved mouth that was like no other woman's. Moreover
there could be no doubt since the veil parting above her breast sho