f his discordant spirit--his familiar face unseen--made her
conscious of an evil emanation from him, else unperceived?

Manetho, to do him justice, assumed anything but a hostile attitude.
His pleasure at seeing the pair so well affected towards each other
was plainly manifested. He clasped his hands together, then extended
them with a gesture of benediction and greeting, and came forward. His
swarthy face, narrowing from brow to chin, if it could not be frank
and hearty, at least expressed a friendliness which it had been
ungracious to mistrust.

"Yes, son of Thor, I live! God has been merciful to both of us. Let
one who knew your father take your hand. Believe that whatever I have
felt for him, I now feel for you,--and more!"

The speaker had cast aside the fashionable clothes which he was in the
habit of wearing during his journeys abroad, probably with a view to
guard against being conspicuous, and was clad in antique priestly
costume. A curiously figured and embroidered robe fell to his feet,
and was confined at the waist by a long girdle, which also passed
round his shoulders, after the manner of a Jewish ephod. It invested
him with a dignity of presence such as ordinary garments would not
have suggested. This, combined with the unexpectedly pacific tone of
his address (its somewhat fantastic formality suiting well with that
of his appearance), was not without effect on Balder. He gave his hand
with some cordiality.

"Yours, also?" continued the other, addressing Gnulemah with an
involuntary deference that surprised her lover. She complied, as a
princess to her subject. This incident seemed to indicate their
position relatively to each other. Had the wily Egyptian played the
slave so well, as finally in good earnest to have become one?

The three stood for a moment joined in a circle, through which what
incongruous passions were circulating! But Gnulemah soon withdrew the
hand held by Manetho, and sent it to seek the one clasped by Balder.
The priest turned cold, and stepped back; and, after an appearance of
mental struggle, said huskily,--

"Hiero is forgotten; you are all for the stranger!"

"You never told me who lived beyond the wall," returned Gnulemah, with
simple dignity; and added, "You are no less to me than before, but
Balder is--my love!" The last words came shyly from her lips, and she
swayed gently, like a noble tree, towards him she named.

Manetho's lips worked against each other, and his b