en a change came into me and I
hated Laban, whom before I had only misliked. Moreover, I too felt that
of which Ki spoke, as though I had known you for thousands of years. My
heart is yours, my love is yours; all that makes me woman is yours, and
never, never can turn from you to any other man. But still we must stay
apart, for your sake, my Prince, for your sake."

"Then, were it not for me, you would be ready to run these hazards?"

"Surely! Am I not a woman who loves?"

"If that be so," he said with a little laugh, "being of full age and of
an understanding which some have thought good, by your leave I think I
will run them also. Oh! foolish woman, do you not understand that there
is but one good thing in the world, one thing in which self and its
miseries can be forgot, and that thing is love? Mayhap troubles will
come. Well, let them come, for what do they matter if only the love or
its memory remains, if once we have picked that beauteous flower and for
an hour worn it on our breasts. You talk of the difference between the
gods we worship and maybe it exists, but all gods send their gifts of
love upon the earth, without which it would cease to be. Moreover, my
faith teaches me more clearly perhaps than yours, that life does not end
with death and therefore that love, being life's soul, must endure while
it endures. Last of all, I think, as you think, that in some dim way
there is truth in what the magicians said, and that long ago in the past
we have been what once more we are about to be, and that the strength of
this invisible tie has drawn us together out of the whole world and will
bind us together long after the world is dead. It is not a matter of
what we wish to do, Merapi, it is a matter of what Fate has decreed we
shall do. Now, answer again."

But she made no answer, and when I looked up after a little moment she
was in his arms and her lips were upon his lips.

Thus did Prince Seti of England and Merapi, Moon of Israel, come
together at Memphis in Egypt.

CHAPTER XIII

THE RED NILE

On the morrow of this night I found the Prince alone for a little while,
and put him in mind of certain ancient manuscripts that he wished to
read, which could only be consulted at Thebes where I might copy them;
also of others that were said to be for sale there. He answered that
they could wait, but I replied that the latter might find some other
purchaser if I did not go at once.

"You are over fond of