ry well," he muttered. "Leave me. I have much to think of--how to
meet this treason."

Lycabetta saluted deeply and left the room to join her women in the cool
colonnades of the garden. She was willing enough that the King should
wreak his revenge upon the captive in whatever fashion best pleased him.
It might have been amusing to tame the girl herself, but it would
certainly have been troublesome; and it was less trouble to wander in
the rose-strewn galleries among the painted pillars, entwined with
Lysidice or Hypsipyle, whispering strange songs and feeding on strange
thoughts. There was even no desire in Lycabetta's mind to witness unseen
through silken curtains the wooing of fool and maid. If Perpetua was
passable for a nymph, Diogenes was too ugly for a satyr, and the sight
of anything ugly was physically repulsive to Lycabetta. She would have
beheld with composure any shame or suffering that could be inflicted
upon Perpetua so long as those who inflicted shame and suffering were
themselves fair to see, comely women or comely men. But since it had
suited the King's pleasure to place the task of punishing Perpetua in
the hands of a hideous fool, a crippled, twisted thing, there was no
pleasure left in the sport for Lycabetta. By-and-by she would learn how
the fool had fared; in the mean time the young moon rode high in heaven,
the gardens were rich with a thousand odors, and the voices of her
companions were very sweet.

X

THE TWO VOICES

Robert, left alone, went on muttering to himself, as he shuffled
restlessly up and down. Through all the bewildering discord of his
thoughts the face of Perpetua seemed to shine clearly, like the light on
a pharos to a striver in an angry sea. Where so many had denied him, she
had recognized him. Lycabetta had, indeed, done as much, but Lycabetta
was the gift of the past; Perpetua was the promise of the future. She
and he would go down hand in hand into the streets of Syracuse. They
would rouse the people, who would surely fight for such a king, for such
a queen. They would sweep the palace clean of their enemies and rule in
Sicily forever.

As, body shambling, mind rambling, he drifted thus about the room, the
curtains behind the statue of Venus parted, and Perpetua appeared in
the opening, standing between the two Moorish slaves. Then the curtains
fell, the slaves disappeared, and Perpetua was left alone with the
seeming fool. She recognized him at once, and the fi