moment at the
two guards, looking from one to the other, and trying to read their
stolid faces. Then she laid her hand on their spears, and would have
pushed them aside; but she could not.

"Whose hounds are ye?" she said angrily. "Know ye not the queen? Make
way!"

But the two strong soldiers neither answered nor removed their weapons
from before the door.

"Dog-faced slaves!" she said between her teeth. "I will crucify you both
before sundown!" She turned and went away, but she was glad that no one
was there in the narrow vestibule before the garden to see her
discomfiture. It was the first time in her life she had ever been
resisted by an inferior, and she could not bear it easily. But when she
discovered, half an hour later, that the guards were obeying the Great
King's orders, she bowed her head silently and went to her apartments to
consider what she should do.

She could do nothing. There was no appeal against the king's word. He
had distinctly commanded that no one save Nehushta, not even Atossa
herself, was to be allowed to enter; he had placed the guards there
himself the previous day, and had himself given the order.

For eleven days the door was barred; but Atossa did not again attempt to
enter. Darius would have visited roughly such an offence, and she knew
how delicate her position was. She resigned herself and occupied her
mind with other things. Daily, an hour before noon, Nehushta swept
proudly through the gate, and disappeared among the roses and myrtles of
the garden; and daily, precisely as the sun reached the meridian, the
king went in between the spearmen, and disappeared in like manner.

Darius had grown so suddenly stern and cold in manner towards the queen,
that she dared not even mention the subject of the garden to him,
fearing a sadden outburst of his anger, which would surely put an end to
her existence in the court, and very likely to her life.

As for Nehushta, she had plentiful cause for reflection and much time
for dreaming. If the days were not happy, they were at least made
bearable for her by the absolute liberty she enjoyed. The king would
have given her slaves and jewels and rich gifts without end, had she
been willing to accept them. She said she had all she needed--and she
said it a little proudly; only the king's visits grew to be the centre
of the day, and each day the visit lengthened, till it came to be nearly
evening when Darius issued from the gate.

She always wai