and sister
love when they are twins. But although the boy was bold and brave, this
little princess always had the mastery of him, not because she was a
princess and heir to the throne of Egypt--for all the high titles
they gave her fell idly on her ears, nor did she think anything of
the bowings of courtiers and of priests--but from some strength within
herself. She it was that set the games they played, and when she talked
he was obliged to listen, for although she was so sound and healthy,
this Tua differed from other children.

Thus she had what she called her "silent hours" when she would suffer no
one to come near her, not her ladies or her foster-mother, Asti herself,
nor even Rames. Then, followed by the women at a distance, she would
wander among the great columns of the temple and study the sculptures
on the walls; and, since all places were open to her, Pharaoh's child,
enter the sanctuaries, and stare at the gods that sat in them fashioned
in granite and in alabaster. This she would do even in the solemn
moonlight when mortals were afraid to approach these sacred shrines, and
come thence unconcerned and smiling.

"What do you see there, O Morning Star?" asked little Rames of her once.
"They are dull things, those stone gods that have never moved since the
beginning of the world; also they frighten me, especially when Ra is
set."

"They are not dull, and they do not frighten me," answered Tua; "they
talk to me, and although I cannot understand all they say, I am happy
with them."

"Talk!" he said contemptuously, "how can stones talk?"

"I do not know. I think it is their spirits that talk, telling me
stories which happened before I was born and that shall happen after
I am dead, yes, and after _they_ seem to be dead. Now be silent--I say
that they talk to me--it is enough."

"For me it would be more than enough," said the boy, "but then I am not
called Child of Amen, who only worship Menthu, God of War."

When Rames was seven years of age, every morning he was taken to school
in the temple, where the priests taught him to write with pens of reed
upon tablets of wood, and told him more about the gods of Egypt than he
ever wanted to hear again. During these hours, except when she was being
instructed by the great ladies of the Court, or by high-priestesses,
Tua was left solitary, since by the command of Pharaoh no other children
were allowed to play with her, perhaps because there were none in the