"There, I feel
strong again, I go to visit Pharaoh. Come with me, Asti."

When Tua arrived at the bedside of Pharaoh she found that the worst of
the danger was over. Fearing for his life the physicians had bled him,
and now the fit had passed away and his eyes were open, although he was
unable to speak and did not know her or anyone. She asked whether he
would live or die, and was told that he would live, or so his doctors
believed, but that for a long while he must lie quite quiet, seeing as
few people as possible, and above all being troubled with no business,
since, if he were wearied or excited, the fit would certainly return
and kill him. So, rejoicing at this news which was better than she had
expected, Tua kissed her father and left him.

"Now will your Majesty go to bed?" asked Asti when she had returned to
her own apartments.

"By no means," answered Tua, "I wear Pharaoh's shoes and have much
business left to do to-night. Summon Mermes, your husband."

So Mermes came and stood before her. He was still what he had been
in the old days when Tua played as an infant in his house, stern,
noble-looking and of few words, but now his hair had grown white and his
face was drawn with grief, both for the sake of Rames, whose hot blood
had brought him into so much danger, and because Pharaoh, who was his
friend, lay between life and death.

Tua looked at him and loved him more than ever, for now that he was
troubled some new likeness to Rames appeared upon his face which she had
never seen before.

"Take heart, noble Mermes," she said gently, "they say that Pharaoh
stays with us yet a while."

"I thank Amen," he answered, "for had he died, his blood would have been
upon the hands of my House."

"Not so, Mermes; it would have been upon the hands of the gods. You
spring from a royal line; say, what would you have thought of your son
if after being struck by that fat Nubian, he had cowered at his feet and
prayed for his life like any slave?"

Mermes flushed and smiled a little, then said:

"The question is rather---What would you have thought, O Queen?"

"I?" answered Tua. "Well, as a queen I should have praised him much,
since then Egypt would have been spared great trouble, but as a woman
and a friend I should never have spoken to him again. Honour is more
than life, Mermes."

"Certainly honour is more than life," replied Mermes, staring at the
ceiling, perhaps to hide the look upon his face, "and for a littl