ve which the pensive
tenant of the villa disdained, the Pharaoh would willingly have
purchased at a great price. In exchange for the priest's daughter he
would have given Twea, Taia, Amense, Hont-Reche, his Asiatic captives,
his vases of gold and silver, his necklaces of gems, his war chariots,
his invincible army, his sceptre,--all, in a word, even his tomb, on
which since the beginning of his reign had been working in the darkness
thousands upon thousands of workmen.

Love is not the same in the hot regions swept by a fiery wind as on the
icy shores where calm descends from heaven with the cold; it is not
blood but fire that flows in the veins. So Tahoser languished and
fainted, though she breathed perfumes, surrounded herself with flowers,
and drank draughts that bring forgetfulness. Music wearied her or
overexcited her feelings; she had ceased to take any pleasure in the
dances of her companions; at night, sleep fled from her eyelids, and
breathless, stifling, her breast heaving with sighs, she would leave her
sumptuous couch and stretch herself out upon the broad slabs of the
pavement, pressing her bosom against the hard granite as if she wished
to breathe in its coolness.

On the night which followed the triumphal entry of the Pharaoh, Tahoser
felt so unhappy and life seemed so empty that she determined not to die
without having made at least one last effort.

She wrapped herself up in a piece of common stuff, kept on but a single
bracelet of odoriferous wood, twisted a piece of striped gauze around
her head, and with the first light of the dawn, without being heard by
Nofre, who was dreaming of the handsome Ahmosis, she left her room,
crossed the garden, drew the bolts of the water gate, proceeded to the
quay, waked a waterman asleep in his papyrus boat, and had herself
transported to the other bank of the stream.

Staggering and pressing her little hand to her heart to still its
beating, she drew near Poeri's dwelling.

It was now broad daylight, and the gates were opening to give passage to
the ox teams going to work, and to the flocks going forth to pasture.

Tahoser knelt on the threshold and placed her hand above her head with a
supplicating gesture, more beautiful, perhaps, even in this humble
attitude and in her mean dress. Her bosom rose and fell and tears
streamed down her pale cheeks.

Poeri saw her and took her for what she was, indeed, a most unhappy
woman.

"Enter," said he; "enter without