only remember
something rather absurd--and affectionate. You know what strange things
dreams are."

"I thought you said it wasn't a dream."

"Really I don't know what it was. But--your wound doesn't hurt you, does
it? You were bleeding a good deal. It stained me here," and she touched
her breast and looked down wonderingly at her sacred, ancient robe as
though she expected to see that it was red.

"As there is no stain now it _must_ have been a dream. But my word! that
was a battle," I answered.

"Yes, I watched it from the pylon top, and oh! it was glorious. Do you
remember the charge of the Ethiopians against the Immortals? Why of
course you must as you led it. And then the fall of Pharaoh Peroa--he
was George, you know. And the death of the Great King, killed by your
black bow; you were a wonderful shot even then, you see. And the burning
of the ships, how they blazed! And--a hundred other things."

"Yes," I said, "it came off. The holy Tanofir was a good strategist--or
his Cup was, I don't know which."

"And you were a good general, and so for the matter of that was Bes. Oh!
what agonies I went through while the fight hung doubtful. My heart was
on fire, yes, I seemed to burn for----" and she stopped.

"For whom?" I asked.

"For Egypt of course, and when, reflected in the alabaster, I saw
you enter that shrine, where you remember I was praying for your
success--and safety, I nearly died of joy. For you know I had been,
well, attached to you--to Shabaka, I mean--all the time--that's my part
of the story which I daresay you did not see. Although I seemed so cold
and wayward I could love, yes, in that life I knew how to love. And
Shabaka looked, oh! a hero with his rent mail and the glory of triumph
in his eyes. He was very handsome, too, in his way. But what nonsense I
am talking."

"Yes, great nonsense. Still, I wish we were sure how it ended. It is a
pity that you forget, for I am crazed with curiosity. I suppose there is
no more _Taduki_, is there?"

"Not a scrap," she answered firmly, "and if there were it would be fatal
to take it twice on the same day. We have learned all there is to learn.
Perhaps it is as well, though I should like to know what happened after
our--our marriage."

"So we _were_ married, were we?"

"I mean," she went on ignoring my remark, "whether you ruled long in
Egypt. For you, or rather Shabaka, did rule. Also whether the Easterns
returned and drove us out, or what. You see