y
finger, fearing lest that emblem of royalty might offend Peroa or some
of his House, if they chanced to see it. So in answer I also sent her
flowers and other gifts, and for the rest was content to wait.

All of which things my mother noted with a smile, saying that the lady
Amada showed a wonderful discretion, such as any man would value in
a wife of so much beauty, which also must be most pleasing to her
mistress, the goddess Isis. To this I answered that I valued it less as
a lover than I might do as a husband. My mother smiled again and spoke
of something else.

Thus things went on while the storm-clouds gathered over Egypt.

One night I could not sleep. It was that of the new moon and I knew that
during those hours of darkness, before the solemn conclave of the high
priests, with pomp and ceremony in the sanctuary of the temple, Amada
had undergone absolution of her vows to Isis and been given liberty
to wed as other women do. Indeed my mother, in virtue of her rank as a
Singer of Amen, had been present at the rite, and returning, told me all
that happened.

She described how Amada had appeared, clad as a priestess, how she had
put up her prayer to the four high priests seated in state, demanding to
be loosed from her vow "for the sake of her heart and of Egypt."

Then one of the high priests, he of Amen, I think, as the chief of them
all, had advanced to the statue of the goddess Isis and whispered the
prayer to it, whereon after a pause the goddess nodded thrice in the
sight of all present, thereby signifying her assent. This done the high
priest returned and proclaimed the absolution in the ancient words "for
the sake of the suppliant's heart and of Egypt" and with it the blessing
of the goddess on her union, adding, however, the formula, "at thy
prayer, daughter and spouse, I, the goddess Isis, cut the rope that
binds thee to me on earth. Yet if thou should'st tie it again, know that
it may never more be severed, for if thou strivest so to do, it shall
strangle thee in whatever shape thou livest on the earth throughout the
generations, and with thee the man thou choosest and those who give thee
to him. Thus saith Isis the Queen of Heaven."

"What does that mean?" I asked my mother.

"It means, my son, that if, having broken her vows to Isis, a woman
should repeat them and once more enter the service of the goddess, and
then for the second time seek to break them, she and the man for whom
she did this