if he had been able. But he stood calm and sorrowful, as an
angel from heaven gazing on the grief of the world--his thoughts full
of sympathy for the pains of men, his soul still breathing the painless
peace of the outer firmament whence he had come and whither he would
return.

"Nehushta," he said at last, seeing that her sobbing did not cease, "it
is not meet that you should thus weep for anything that is past. Be
comforted; the years of life are few, and you are one of the great ones
of the earth. It is needful that all should suffer. Forget not that
although your heart be heavy, you are a queen, and must bear yourself as
a queen. Take your life strongly in your hands and live it. The end is
not far and your peace is at hand."

Nehushta looked up suddenly and grew very grave as he spoke. Her heavy
eyes rested on his, and she sighed--but the sigh was still broken, by
the trembling of her past sobs.

"You, who are a priest and a prophet," she said,--"you, who read the
heaven as it were a book--tell me, Zoroaster, is it not far? Shall we
meet beyond the stars, as you used to tell me--so long ago?"

"It is not far," he answered, and a gentle smile illuminated his pale
face. "Take courage--for truly it is not far."

He gazed into her eyes for a moment, and it seemed as though some of
that steadfast light penetrated into her soul, for as he turned and went
his way among the roses, a look of peace descended on her tired face,
and she fell back upon her cushion and closed her eyes, and let the
breeze of the palm-fan play over her wan cheeks and through her heavy
hair.

But Zoroaster returned into the palace, and he was very thoughtful. He
had many duties to perform, besides the daily evening sacrifice in the
temple, for Darius consulted him constantly upon many matters connected
with the state; and on every occasion Zoroaster's keen foresight and
knowledge of men found constant exercise in the development of the laws
and statutes Darius was forming for his consolidated kingdom. First of
all, the question of religion seemed to him of paramount importance; and
here Zoroaster displayed all his great powers of organisation, as well
as the true and just ideas he held upon the subject. Himself an ascetic
mystic, he foresaw the danger to others of attempting to pursue the same
course, or even of founding a system of mystical study. The object of
mankind must be the welfare of mankind, and a set of priests who should
shut the