ut hers out too, and for a
moment they looked in silence into each other's eyes, and then she,
seeing that the kiss which she expected did not come, parted her lips
and said smilingly:

"You need not fear to kiss them, dearest, they have not yet been
polluted by the lips of Menkau-Ra, although all the city has been
hailing him as the betrothed of Nitocris."

Then he smiled too, and their lips met in such a long, silent kiss as
only lovers give and take.

"Thy words are almost as sweet as thy kisses are, O Nitocris!" he said,
"for I would sooner see thee--yes, I would sooner see thee in the hands
of the Paraschites--this lovely body of thine dead--knowing that thy
soul was waiting for mine on the shores of Amenti, than I would know
that those sweet lips had been defiled by the touch of such as he; and
yet surely thou hast spoken with him. Did he not claim the fulfilment of
the promise of the great king?"

"Ah yes," she replied softly, as she slipped out of his arms, "but it is
one thing to claim and another to get. Yes, I have spoken with him. I
have promised all, and given nothing. I have not even yielded my hand to
his lips, for I told him in answer to all the entreaties of his
love--and of a truth I tell thee that he loves me very dearly, for that
great, strong frame of his shook like a bulrush in the wind under the
breath of my lightest words--that, until the last vows had made us man
and wife, I would be his queen and he should be my subject and my slave,
even as he was of the great Rameses; and with this he was fain to be
content, thinking, no doubt, how soon he would be my lord and master,
and I his--his queen and plaything, bound by the law that may not be
broken, to submit to every varying whim and humour of his passion."

"Thy master, Nitocris! Thine! Such shame could never be. Rather would
the High Gods permit Death to be the Master of Life, or Night to be Lord
of Day. Is there no other way?"

"Yes, there is another way, and only one to save me, Nefer--if truly the
soul of my beloved is looking out of thine eyes into mine," she
whispered, coming close to him and laying her hands lightly upon his
shoulders, "there is another way, but it is the way that leads through
the mystery of the things that are into the deeper mystery of the things
that are to be--the way of death and vengeance. Tell me, my beloved,
hast thou the courage to tread it with me?"

The lovely face, the pleading lips, the searching eyes