"Oh," shuddered she, "canst Thou ask such a question?"

"And Thou wilt be mine," whispered the prince.

"Dost Thou wish my death?" asked she, terrified. "Well, if Thou wish
it, I am ready."

"I wish thee to live," whispered he, impassioned, "to live, belonging
to me."

"That cannot be,"

"But the supreme council of Tyrian priests?"

"They can permit nothing but marriage."

"But Thou wilt enter my house."

"If I enter it not as thy wife, I shall die. But I am ready even not to
see to-morrow's sun."

"Be at rest," replied the prince, seriously. "Whoso has my favor will
not experience injustice."

Kama knelt before him a second time.

"How can that be?" asked she, clasping her hands.

Ramses was so roused that he had forgotten his position and his duties;
he was ready to promise the priestess even marriage. He was restrained
from that step, not by judgment, but by some dumb instinct.

"How can this be? How can this be?" whispered Kama, devouring him with
her glances and kissing his feet.

The prince raised her, seated her at a distance from him, and said with
a smile,

"Thou askest how this can be I will explain immediately. My last
teacher, before I reached maturity, was a certain old priest, who knew
a multitude of marvelous histories from the lives of gods, kings,
priests, even lower officials and laborers.

"This old man, famed for devotion and miracles, did not like women, I
know not why; he even dreaded them. Very frequently he described the
perversity of women, and once, to show how great the power is which ye
wield over men, he told me the following history:

"A certain scribe, young and indigent, who had not an uten in his
purse, who had nothing save a barley cake, traveled down from Thebes to
Lower Egypt while seeking for employment. Men said that in the north
dwelt the richest lords and merchants, and that in case of luck he
would find a place in which he might acquire extensive property.

"He walked along the Nile, for he had no coin with which to hire a
boat, and he pondered,

"'How improvident are men inheriting a talent or two, or even ten
talents! Instead of adding to their wealth by traffic, or by lending at
high interest,' thought he, 'these men waste what they have, to no
purpose. Had I a drachma, well, one drachma is too little, but had I
one talent, or, better, a plot of land, I would increase it yearly, and
toward the end of life I should be as wealthy as the wealthiest
nom