vate chamber,
where I had first seen him.

"That is finished," he said in a cheerful voice, "and I tell you, Ana,
that I feel quite, quite happy. Have you ever shivered upon the bank
of a river of a winter morning, fearing to enter, and yet, when you did
enter, have you not been pleased to find that the icy water refreshed
you and made you not cold but hot?"

"Yes, Prince. It is when one comes out of the water, if the wind blows
and no sun shines, that one feels colder than before."

"True, Ana, and therefore one must not come out. One should stop there
till one--drowns or is eaten by a crocodile. But, say, did I do it
well?"

"Old Bakenkhonsu told me, Prince, that he had been present at many royal
betrothals, I think he said eleven, and had never seen one conducted
with more grace. He added that the way in which you kissed the brow
of her Highness was perfect, as was all your demeanour after the first
argument."

"And so it would remain, Ana, if I were never called upon to do more
than kiss her brow, to which I have been accustomed from boyhood.
Oh! Ana, Ana," he added in a kind of cry, "already you are becoming a
courtier like the rest of them, a courtier who cannot speak the truth.
Well, nor can I, so why should I blame you? Tell me again all about your
marriage, Ana, of how it began and how it ended."

CHAPTER V

THE PROPHECY

Whether or no the Prince Seti saw Userti again before the hour of his
marriage with her I cannot say, because he never told me. Indeed I was
not present at the marriage, for the reason that I had been granted
leave to return to Memphis, there to settle my affairs and sell my house
on entering upon my appointment as private scribe to his Highness. Thus
it came about that fourteen full days went by from that of the holding
of the Court of Betrothal before I found myself standing once more at
the gate of the Prince's palace, attended by a servant who led an ass
on which were laden all my manuscripts and certain possessions that had
descended to me from my ancestors with the title-deeds of their tombs.
Different indeed was my reception on this my second coming. Even as I
reached the steps the old chamberlain Pambasa appeared, running down
them so fast that his white robes and beard streamed upon the air.

"Greeting, most learned scribe, most honourable Ana," he panted. "Glad
indeed am I to see you, since very hour his Highness asks if you have
returned, and blames me because you ha