my hand. He advises it, you
understand-he does not command."

"And thou?" asked Katuti.

"And I," replied Bent-Anat decidedly, "must refuse him."

"Thou must!"

Bent-Anat made a sign of assent and went on:

"It is quite clear to me. I can do nothing else."

"Then thou dost not need my counsel, since even thy father, I well know,
will not be able to alter thy decision."

"Not God even," said Anat firmly. "But you are Ani's friend, and as I
esteem him, I would save him from this humiliation. Endeavor to persuade
him to give up his suit. I will meet him as though I knew nothing of his
letter to my father."

Katuti looked down reflectively. Then she said--"The Regent certainly
likes very well to pass his hours of leisure with me gossiping or
playing draughts, but I do not know that I should dare to speak to him
of so grave a matter."

"Marriage-projects are women's affairs," said Bent-Anat, smiling.

"But the marriage of a princess is a state event," replied the widow.
"In this case it is true the uncle

[Among the Orientals--and even the Spaniards--it was and is common
to give the name of uncle to a parent's cousin.]

only courts his niece, who is dear to him, and who he hopes will make
the second half of his life the brightest. Ani is kind and without
severity. Thou would'st win in him a husband, who would wait on thy
looks, and bow willingly to thy strong will."

Bent-Anat's eyes flashed, and she hastily exclaimed: "That is exactly
what forces the decisive irrevocable 'No' to my lips. Do you think that
because I am as proud as my mother, and resolute like my father, that I
wish for a husband whom I could govern and lead as I would? How little
you know me! I will be obeyed by my dogs, my servants, my officers, if
the Gods so will it, by my children. Abject beings, who will kiss my
feet, I meet on every road, and can buy by the hundred, if I wish it,
in the slave market. I may be courted twenty times, and reject twenty
suitors, but not because I fear that they might bend my pride and my
will; on the contrary, because I feel them increased. The man to whom I
could wish to offer my hand must be of a loftier stamp, must be
greater, firmer, and better than I, and I will flutter after the mighty
wing-strokes of his spirit, and smile at my own weakness, and glory in
admiring his superiority."

Katuti listened to the maiden with the smile by which the experienced
love to signify their superiority over the