dangerous, and of its end I will not speak until
I have heard the counsel of your great-uncle, the holy Tanofir. Still,
things having gone so far, it seems to me that boldness may be the best
course, since the great King has his Grecian wars to deal with, and
whatever he may say, cannot attack Egypt yet awhile. Therefore if Peroa
is able to overcome Idernes and his army he may cause himself to be
proclaimed Pharaoh and make Egypt free if only for a time."

"Such is my mind, Mother."

"Not all your mind, Son, I think," she answered smiling, "for you
think more of the lovely Amada than of these high policies, at any
rate to-night. Well, marry your Amada if you can, though I misdoubt me
somewhat of a woman who is so lost in learning and thinks so much about
her soul. At least if you marry her and Egypt should become free, as it
was for thousands of years, you will be the next heir to the throne as
husband of the Great Royal Lady."

"How can that be, Mother, seeing that Peroa has a son?"

"A vain youth with no more in him than a child's rattle. If once Amada
ceases to think about her soul she will begin to think about her throne,
especially if she has children. But all this is far away and for the
present I am glad that neither she nor the thieves have got those
pearls, though perhaps they might be safer here than where they are.
And now, my son, go rest for you need it, and dream of nothing, not even
Amada, who for her part will dream of Isis, if at all. I will wake you
before the dawn."

So I went, being too tired to talk more, and slept like a crocodile
in the sun, till, as it seemed to me, but a few minutes later I saw my
mother standing over me with a lamp, saying that it was time to rise. I
rose, unwillingly enough, but refreshed, washed and dressed myself,
by which time the sun had begun to appear. Then I ate some food and,
calling Bes, made ready to start for the palace.

"My son," said my mother, the lady Tiu, before we parted, "while you
have been sleeping I have been thinking, as is the way of the old.
Peroa, your cousin, will be glad enough to make use of you, but he does
not love you over much because he is jealous of you and fears lest you
should become his rival in the future. Still he is an honest man and
will keep a bargain which he once has made. Now it seems that above
everything on earth you desire Amada on whom you have set your heart
since boyhood, but who has always played with you and spoken t