r which in the first
instance a priest or a woman is not responsible. Seriously, Katuti--in
nine great events out of ten you women have a hand in the game. You gave
the first impulse to all that is plotting here, and I will confess to
you that, regardless of all consequences, I should in a few hours have
given up my pretensions to the throne, if that woman Bent-Anat had said
'yes' instead of 'no.'"

"You make me believe," said Katuti, "that the weaker sex are gifted
with stronger wills than the nobler. In marrying us you style us, 'the
mistress of the house,' and if the elders of the citizens grow infirm,
in this country it is not the sons but the daughters that must be
their mainstay. But we women have our weaknesses, and chief of these is
curiosity.--May I ask on what ground Bent-Anat dismissed you?"

"You know so much that you may know all," replied Ani. "She admitted
me to speak to her alone. It was yet early, and she had come from the
temple, where the weak old prophet had absolved her from uncleanness;
she met me, bright, beautiful and proud, strong and radiant as a
Goddess, and a princess. My heart throbbed as if I were a boy, and while
she was showing me her flowers I said to myself: 'You are come to obtain
through her another claim to the throne.' And yet I felt that, if she
consented to be mine, I would remain the true brother, the faithful
Regent of Rameses, and enjoy happiness and peace by her side before it
was too late. If she refused me then I resolved that fate must take
its way, and, instead of peace and love, it must be war for the crown
snatched from my fathers. I tried to woo her, but she cut my words
short, said I was a noble man, and a worthy suitor but--"

"There came the but."

"Yes--in the form of a very frank 'no.' I asked her reasons. She begged
me to be content with the 'no;' then I pressed her harder, till she
interrupted me, and owned with proud decision that she preferred some
one else. I wished to learn the name of the happy man--that she refused.
Then my blood began to boil, and my desire to win her increased; but I
had to leave her, rejected, and with a fresh, burning, poisoned wound in
my heart."

"You are jealous!" said Katuti, "and do you know of whom?"

"No," replied Ani. "But I hope to find out through you. What I feel it
is impossible for me to express. But one thing I know, and that is
this, that I entered the palace a vacillating man--that I left it firmly
resolved. I now