she
smiled.

Then she left me to make ready before she slept a while.

Work as we would noon had passed two hours, on the following day, before
we were prepared to start, for there was much to do. Thus the house must
be placed in charge of friends and the means of travel collected. Also a
messenger came from Pharaoh praying me for his and Egypt's sake to think
again before I left them, and an answer sent that go I must, whither
the holy Tanofir would know if at any time Pharaoh desired to learn. In
reply to this came another messenger who brought me parting gifts from
Pharaoh, a chain of honour, a title of higher nobility, a commission
as his envoy to whatever land I wandered, and so forth, which I must
acknowledge. Lastly as we were leaving the house to seek the boat which
Bes had made ready on the Nile, there came yet another messenger at the
sight of whom my heart leapt, for he was priest of Isis.

He bowed and handed me a roll. I opened it with a trembling hand and
read:

"From the Prophetess of Isis whose house is at Amada, aforetime
Royal Lady of Egypt, to the Count Shabaka,

"I learn, O my Cousin, that you depart from Egypt and knowing the
reason my heart is sore. Believe me, my Cousin, I love you well,
better than any who lives upon the earth, nor will that love ever
change, since the goddess who holds my future in her hands, knows
of what we are made and is not jealous of the past. Therefore she
will not be wroth at the earthly love of one who is gathered to
her heavenly arms. Her blessing and mine be on you and if we see
each other no more face to face in the world, may we meet again in
the halls of Osiris. Farewell, beloved Shabaka. Oh! why did you
suffer that black master of lies, the dwarf Bes, to persuade you
to hide the truth from me?"

So the writing ended and below it were two stains still wet, which I
knew were caused by tears. Moreover, wrapped in a piece of silk and
fastened to the scroll was a little gold ring graven with the royal
_uraeus_ that Amada had always worn from childhood. Only on the previous
night I had noted it on the first finger of her right hand.

I took my stylus and my waxen tablets and wrote on one of them:

"Had you been a man, Amada, and not a woman, I think you would have
judged me differently but, learned priestess and prophetess as you
are, a woman you remain. Perchance a time may come when once more
you will turn to me in th