Yes, I will, if it is possible: but let me go now. No, you
must not kiss me yet. Remember that Russian saying, 'Take thy thoughts
to bed with thee, for the morning is wiser than the evening.'
Good-night, Oscar, I am very tired. You shall have your answer in the
morning. May I take this with me?"

"Yes," he replied, giving her his hand as she rose from her chair, and
bowing over hers until his lips touched it. "Take it, unworthy as it is,
as an earnest of the realisation of the happy dreams that will come to
me to-night. Au revoir, pas adieu!"

"Auf viedersehn, mein Oscar!" she replied as she passed him, leaving the
sensation of a gentle flutter of her hand in his. "We shall understand
each other better still before long--I hope."

"It is my dearest wish. Good-night, Nitocris, and when the dawn comes
may it find nothing but sunshine in that sweet soul of yours!"

Nitocris went to her room and found her maid waiting, white-faced and
anxious. She was frightened and nearly worn out with caring for her
mistress. She would have been very glad to have been back that very
night at "The Wilderness," even if it had lost its master.

"Go to bed at once, Jenny; you look like a ghost, as you may well do
after all the trouble I've given you. No, I don't really want you, and
you want sleep rather badly. Go to bed, like a good girl. It will not be
the first time that I have undressed myself."

And when Jenny had gone and she had locked the door, Nitocris stripped
herself, save for the collar of diamonds and the pendant Horus Stone.
She took a long veil of Indian muslin out of her dress-box and wound it
round her after the fashion of old Egypt, leaving her left breast bare.
Only the Ureaus Crown was wanting to make her, in the flesh, Nitocris
the Queen: but here on her bosom flashed and flamed the Horus
Stone--hers once again, as it had been in the far-off past, symbol of
her sovereignty, and proof of her faith in the one true Doctrine.

She looked at the lovely reflection in the long mirror behind her
dressing-table, and said to herself in a low, whispering laugh:

"This for you, Oscar Oscarovitch that is, Menkau-Ra who was! Yes, you
may dream your pleasant dreams to-night; you may take me to your lonely
castle in Viborg Bay; you may make me marry you, as you think I
shall--and here is my wedding gift--mine again after all these
ages--blessed be for ever the Holy Trinity, Osiris, Isis, and Horus. May
the Most High Gods help an