knelt to her lord.
Somewhere in that assembly Hotep had seen it, and she wondered numbly if
he understood why she had submitted; wondered if she had saved him;
wondered if she could endure for the long life they must spend under the
same roof; wondered if the gods would take pity on her and kill her very
soon.

By this time, Rameses had raised her. He lifted the badge of princehood
from his forehead, shortened the fillet from which it hung, so that it
would fit her small head and set it on her brow.

The great palace shook with the acclaim of the courtiers. Organ-throated
trumpets were blown; the clang of crossed arms, and sound of beaten
shields arose from all parts of the king's house; all the ancients'
manifestations of joy were made,--and the pair that had brought it forth
looked upon each other.

Masanath was trembling, and filled with a great desire to cry out. All
this was manifest on her small, white face. The light had died in the
prince's eyes, the exultation was gone from his countenance. He knew
what thoughts were uppermost in the mind of Masanath, and the tyrant had
spoken truly to her long ago, when he said his heart might be hurt. His
brow contracted with an expression of actual pain and he turned with a
fierce movement as if to command the rejoicings to be still. But a
thought deterred him and taking Masanath's hand he led her down the hall
through the bending ranks of purple-wearing Egyptians to the great
portals of the hall. There, he gave her into the hands of a troop of
court-ladies, lithe as leopards and gorgeous as butterflies, who led her
with many sinuous obeisances to her apartments. She had not far to go.
The suite given over to the new crown princess was within the wing of the
palace in which the royal family lived. Masanath noted with a little
trepidation that her door was very near to the portals over which was the
winged sun, carven and portentous. Here were the chambers of her lord,
the heir.

Within her own apartments, she was attended multitudinously.
Ladies-in-waiting bent at her elbow; soft-fingered daughters of nobility
habited her in purple-edged robes; flitting apparitions, in a distant
chamber, glimpsed through a vista, laid a table of viands for her, to
which she was led with many soft flatteries; her every wish was
anticipated; all her trepidation conspicuously overlooked; her rank
religiously observed in all speech and behavior. And of all her retinue,
she was