om the door
of Sorais' private apartments. 'Now follow me,' and I ran up
a stairway into an outlook tower that rose from the roof of our
quarters, taking the spyglass with me, and looked out over the
palace wall. The first thing we saw was one of the messengers
speeding towards the Temple, bearing, without any doubt, the
Queen's word to the High Priest Agon, but for the other I searched
in vain. Presently, however, I spied a horseman riding furiously
through the northern gate of the city, and in him I recognized
the other messenger.

'Ah!' I said, 'Sorais is a woman of spirit. She is acting at
once, and will strike quick and hard. You have insulted her,
my boy, and the blood will flow in rivers before the stain is
washed away, and yours with it, if she can get hold of you.
Well, I'm off to Nyleptha. Just you stop where you are, old
fellow, and try to get your nerves straight again. You'll need
them all, I can tell you, unless I have observed human nature
in the rough for fifty years for nothing.' And off I went accordingly.

I gained audience of the Queen without trouble. She was expecting
Curtis, and was not best pleased to see my mahogany-coloured
face instead.

'Is there aught wrong with my Lord, Macumazahn, that he waits
not upon me? Say, is he sick?'

I said that he was well enough, and then, without further ado,
I plunged into my story and told it from beginning to end. Oh,
what a rage she flew into! It was a sight to see her, she looked
so lovely.

'How darest thou come to me with such a tale?' she cried. 'It
is a lie to say that my Lord was making love to Sorais, my sister.'

'Pardon me, oh Queen,' I answered, 'I said that Sorais was making
love to thy lord.'

'Spin me no spiders' webs of words. Is not the thing the same
thing? The one giveth, the other taketh; but the gift passes,
and what matters it which is the most guilty? Sorais! oh, I
hate her -- Sorais is a queen and my sister. She had not stooped
so low had he not shown the way. Oh, truly hath the poet said
that man is like a snake, whom to touch is poison, and whom none
can hold.'

'The remark, oh Queen, is excellent, but methinks thou hast misread
the poet. Nyleptha,' I went on, 'thou knowest well that thy
words are empty foolishness, and that this is no time for folly.'

'How darest thou?' she broke in, stamping her foot. 'Hast my
false lord sent thee to me to insult me also? Who art thou,
stranger, that thou should