Phaedime impatiently; "I want to know what has
happened now."

"Patience, patience, my impetuous March wind. If you interrupt me again,
I shall go away and tell my story to the trees. You really need not
grudge me the pleasure of living my successes over again. While I tell
this story, I feel as happy as a sculptor when he puts down his hammer
and gazes at his finished work."

"No, no!" said Phaedime, interrupting him again. "I cannot listen now
to what I know quite well already. I am dying of impatience, and every
fresh report that the eunuchs and slave-girls bring makes it worse. I
am in a perfect fever--I cannot wait. Ask whatever else you like, only
deliver me from this awful suspense. Afterwards I will listen to you for
days, if you wish."

Boges' smile at these words was one of great satisfaction; he rubbed his
hands and answered: "When I was a child I had no greater pleasure than
to watch a fish writhing on the hook; now I have got you, my splendid
golden carp, at the end of my line, and I can't let you go until I have
sated myself on your impatience."

Phaedime sprang up from the couch which she had shared with Boges,
stamping her foot and behaving like a naughty child. This seemed to
amuse the eunuch immensely; he rubbed his hands again and again, laughed
till the tears ran down over his fat cheeks, emptied many a goblet of
wine to the health of the tortured beauty, and then went on with his
tale: "It had not escaped me that Cambyses sent his brother (who had
brought Nitetis from Egypt), out to the war with the Tapuri purely from
jealousy. That proud woman, who was to take no orders from me, seemed to
care as little for the handsome, fair-haired boy as a Jew for pork, or
an Egyptian for white beans. But still I resolved to nourish the king's
jealousy, and use it as a means of rendering this impudent creature
harmless, as she seemed likely to succeed in supplanting us both in his
favor. It was long, however, before I could hit on a feasible plan.

"At last the new-year's festival arrived and all the priests in the
kingdom assembled at Babylon. For eight days the city was full of
rejoicing, feasting and merry-making. At court it was just the same, and
so I had very little time to think of my plans. But just then, when I
had hardly any hope of succeeding, the gracious Amescha cpenta sent a
youth across my path, who seemed created by Angramainjus himself to
suit my plan. Gaumata, the brother of Oropastes, cam