were close to
his. He could feel the soft contact of her body, even her fluttering
heartbeats answering his. It was the moment of the supreme test, the
parting of the ways--to the heights whose pinnacles reach to the heaven
of Perfect Knowledge, or to the abysses whose lowest depths are the roof
of hell; for there is but one heaven and one hell, and their names are
Knowledge and Ignorance.

There lay the fulfilment of his vows, the renunciation of the lower life
with all its potent witcheries of the senses, with all its exquisite
delights and glittering prizes, fame and honours, power and wealth,
and, dearest of all, the love of woman.

Here, clasped in his arms, stood Nitocris, her hands still resting
lightly on his shoulders, her head lying on his breast, her eyes
upturned, the star-beams swimming in their luminous depths.

"Nefer, beloved, answer me!"

The stars grew dim, and the solid floor of the terrace shook under his
feet. He bent his head and laid his lips upon hers.

"Thou art answered, O Nitocris--even unto death and the life beyond!"

Her lips returned his kisses--kisses that were curses--and then for many
minutes they conversed in hurried whispers. At last she slipped out of
his arms and left him, his lips burning from the clinging touch of hers,
and his heart cold with a fear that was greater than the fear of death.

He clasped his hands to his temples and looked up at the coldly shining
Isis Star, and through the silence there came to his soul in the speech
that is never heard by the ears of flesh the fateful words:

"Once only is it given to mortals to look into the eyes of Isis. He who
looks and turns his gaze aside has found and lost."

CHAPTER III

THE DEATH-BRIDAL OF NITOCRIS

The day of the bridal of Nitocris the Queen with Menkau-Ra the Conqueror
had come and gone in a blaze of golden splendour. In all the Upper and
Lower Lands no head was held so proudly as the head of Menkau-Ra, no
heart beat so high as his that day, nor did any cheek bloom so sweetly,
or any eyes shine so brightly as the cheeks and the eyes of Nitocris--so
strange are the workings of a woman's heart, and so far are its
mysteries past finding out.

And now the bridal feast was spread in the great banqueting hall which
Pepi the Wise had made deep down in the foundations of his palace below
the waters of the Nile at flood-time, and at midnight the waters would
be at the full. It was here that Nitocris had sat