it to you in your sleep? Come, the sun of this new
day shines, let us walk in it, and bid farewell to shadows."

CHAPTER XII

THE ROYAL MARRIAGE

A strange rumour ran through Memphis. It was said that the Queen had
yielded; it was said that she would marry the Prince Abi, that she
was already at the great White House waiting to be made a bride. Men
wrangled about in the streets. They swore that it could not be true, for
would this high lady, the anointed Pharaoh of Egypt, take her father's
murderer, and her own uncle to husband? Would she not rather die in her
prison tower on which night by night they had seen her stand and sing?
In their hearts they thought that she should die, for thus they had
summed her up, this pure, high-hearted daughter of Amen, whom Fate had
caught in an evil net. Yes, being men they held that she ought to die,
and leave a story in the world, whereof Egypt could be proud for ever.

But their wives and daughters mocked at them. After all she was but a
woman, they argued, and was it likely that she would throw aside the
pomp of rule and the prospect of long years in order to steal away into
the shadows of a forgotten tomb? Henceforth, it was true, she must take
second place, for Abi would be a stern master to her. Still, any place
was better than a funeral barge. She had felt the pinch of hunger yonder
in that old temple; her fierce spirit had been tamed; she had kissed the
rod, and after long years of waiting, Abi would be Pharaoh in Egypt.

The dispute grew hot, for even those men who rebelled against her, in
their hearts had set her high, and grieved to think of her, the divine
Lady, bowing her neck to the common yoke of circumstance, and selling
herself for safety, and a seat on the steps of her own throne. But the
women mocked on, and showed them that as they had always said, she was
no better than others of her sex.

Presently the matter was settled, for heralds appeared crying throughout
the city that the marriage would take place in the great hall of the
White House one hour before sundown. Then the women laughed in triumph,
and the men were silent.

It was the appointed hour, and that hall was filled to overflowing by
all who could gain entrance there. Between the towering obelisks that
stood on either side the open cedar doors, folk hung upon its steps like
hiving bees; the vast square without and all the streets that led to it
were black with them. Here, it is true, they coul