be and said:

"It is very childish, but I thought how it would be if I might put this
flower with my own hands into your shining hair. May I?"

"It is a splendid rose! I never saw such a fine one."

"It is for my haughty princess. Do pray let me dress your hair! It
is like silk from Tyre, like a swan's breast, like golden
star-beams--there, it is fixed safely! Nay, leave it so. If the seven
Hathors could see you, they would be jealous, for you are fairer than
all of them."

"How you flatter!" said Uarda, shyly blushing, and looking into his
sparkling eyes.

"Uarda," said the prince, pressing her hand to his heart. "I have now
but one wish. Feel how my heart hammers and beats. I believe it will
never rest again till you--yes, Uarda--till you let me give you one,
only one, kiss."

The girl drew back.

"Now," she said seriously. "Now I see what you want. Old Hekt knows men,
and she warned me."

"Who is Hekt, and what can she know of me?"

"She told me that the time would come when a man would try to make
friends with me. He would look into my eyes, and if mine met his, then
he would ask to kiss me. But I must refuse him, because if I liked
him to kiss me he would seize my soul, and take it from me, and I must
wander, like the restless ghosts, which the abyss rejects, and the
storm whirls before it, and the sea will not cover, and the sky will not
receive, soulless to the end of my days. Go away--for I cannot refuse
you the kiss, and yet I would not wander restless, and without a soul!"

"Is the old woman who told you that a good woman?" asked Rameri.

Uarda shook her head.

"She cannot be good," cried the prince. "For she has spoken a falsehood.
I will not seize your soul; I will give you mine to be yours, and
you shall give me yours to be mine, and so we shall neither of us be
poorer--but both richer!"

"I should like to believe it," said Uarda thoughtfully, "and I have
thought the same kind of thing. When I was strong, I often had to go
late in the evening to fetch water from the landing-place where the
great water-wheel stands. Thousands of drops fall from the earthenware
pails as it turns, and in each you can see the reflection of a moon, yet
there is only one in the sky. Then I thought to myself, so it must be
with the love in our hearts. We have but one heart, and yet we pour it
out into other hearts without its losing in strength or in warmth. I
thought of my grandmother, of my father, of little Sch