d at last; "and when you die I will see
to your being embalmed; but give up your black arts. You must be rich,
and, if you are not, say what you need. Indeed, I scarcely dare offer
you gold--it excites your hatred, as I understand."

"I could take thine--but now let me go!"

She got up, and went towards the door, but the Regent called to her to
stop, and asked:

"Is Assa the father of your son, the little Nemu, the dwarf of the lady
Katuti?"

The witch laughed loudly. "Is the little wretch like Assa or like Beki?
I picked him up like many other children."

"But he is clever!" said Ani.

"Ay-that he is. He has planned many a shrewd stroke, and is devoted to
his mistress. He will help thee to thy purpose, for he himself has one
too."

"And that is--?"

"Katuti will rise to greatness with thee, and to riches through Paaker,
who sets out to-morrow to make the woman he loves a widow."

"You know a great deal," said Ani meditatively, "and I would ask you
one thing more; though indeed your story has supplied the answer--but
perhaps you know more now than you did in your youth. Is there in truth
any effectual love-philter?"

"I will not deceive thee, for I desire that thou should'st keep thy word
to me," replied Hekt. "A love potion rarely has any effect, and never
but on women who have never before loved. If it is given to a woman
whose heart is filled with the image of another man her passion for him
only will grow the stronger."

"Yet another," said Ani. "Is there any way of destroying an enemy at a
distance?"

"Certainly," said the witch. "Little people may do mean things, and
great people can let others do things that they cannot do themselves. My
story has stirred thy gall, and it seems to me that thou dost not love
the poet Pentaur. A smile! Well then--I have not lost sight of him,
and I know he is grown up as proud and as handsome as Assa. He is
wonderfully like him, and I could have loved him--have loved as this
foolish heart had better never have loved. It is strange! In many women,
who come to me, I see how their hearts cling to the children of men who
have abandoned them, and we women are all alike, in most things. But I
will not let myself love Assa's grandchild--I must not. I will injure
him, and help everyone that persecutes him; for though Assa is dead, the
wrongs he did me live in me so long as I live myself. Pentaur's destiny
must go on its course. If thou wilt have his life, consult with Nemu,