her the fork. "This is the only way," she said,
"and you will notice that the tines are very short and blunt."

The girl shuddered and the old woman laid a hand gently upon her
shoulder. "He may only look at you and send you away," she said.
"Ago XXV sent for me once, tried to talk with me, discovered
that I could not understand him and that he could not understand
me, ordered that I be taught the language of his people, and then
apparently forgot me for a year. Sometimes I do not see the king
for a long period. There was one king who ruled for five years
whom I never saw. There is always hope; even I whose very memory
has doubtless been forgotten beyond these palace walls still hope,
though none knows better how futilely."

The old woman led Bertha Kircher to an adjoining apartment in
the floor of which was a pool of water. Here the girl bathed and
afterward her companion brought her one of the clinging garments
of the native women and adjusted it about her figure. The material
of the robe was of a gauzy fabric which accentuated the rounded
beauty of the girlish form.

"There," said the old woman, as she gave a final pat to one of the
folds of the garment, "you are a queen indeed!"

The girl looked down at her naked breasts and but half-concealed
limbs in horror. "They are going to lead me into the presence of
men in this half-nude condition!" she exclaimed.

The old woman smiled her crooked smile. "It is nothing," she said.
"You will become accustomed to it as did I who was brought up in
the home of a minister of the gospel, where it was considered little
short of a crime for a woman to expose her stockinged ankle. By
comparison with what you will doubtless see and the things that
you may be called upon to undergo, this is but a trifle."

For what seemed hours to the distraught girl she paced the floor
of her apartment, awaiting the final summons to the presence of the
mad king. Darkness had fallen and the oil flares within the palace
had been lighted long before two messengers appeared with instructions
that Herog demanded her immediate presence and that the old woman,
whom they called Xanila, was to accompany her. The girl felt some
slight relief when she discovered that she was to have at least
one friend with her, however powerless to assist her the old woman
might be.

The messengers conducted the two to a small apartment on the floor
below. Xanila explained that this was one of the anterooms off
the