re."

"What are you talking about, my sweet one? don't you know, that not a
single waiting-woman can be engaged without my consent?"

"Oh, yes, I know that as well as you do, but..."

"But you women are an unthankful race, and don't deserve our kindness."

"Please not to forget, that you are speaking to a girl of good family."

"I know that very well, my little one. I know that your father was a
Magian and your mother a Magian's daughter; that they both died early
and you were placed under the care of the Destur Ixabates, the father of
Oropastes, and grew up with his children. I know too that when you had
received the ear-rings, Oropastes' brother Gaumata, (you need not blush,
Gaumata is a pretty name) fell in love with your rosy face, and wanted
to marry you, though he was only nineteen. Gaumata and Mandane, how well
the two names sound together! Mandane and Gaumata! If I were a poet I
should call my hero Gaumata and his lady-love Mandane."

"I insist on your ceasing to jest in this way," cried Mandane, blushing
deeply and stamping her foot.

"What, are you angry because I say the names sound well together? You
ought rather to be angry with the proud Oropastes, who sent his younger
brother to Rhagar and you to the court, that you might forget one
another."

"That is a slander on my benefactor."

"Let my tongue wither away, if I am not speaking the truth and nothing
but the truth! Oropastes separated you and his brother because he had
higher intentions for the handsome Gaumata, than a marriage with the
orphan daughter of an inferior Magian. He would have been satisfied with
Amytis or Menische for a sister-in-law, but a poor girl like you, who
owed everything to his bounty, would only have stood in the way of his
ambitious plans. Between ourselves, he would like to be appointed
regent of Persia while the king is away at the Massagetan war, and would
therefore give a great deal to connect himself by marriage in some
way or other with the Archemenidae. At his age a new wife is not to be
thought of; but his brother is young and handsome, indeed people go so
far as to say, that he is like the Prince Bartja."

"That is true," exclaimed the girl. "Only think, when we went out to
meet my mistress, and I saw Bartja for the first time from the window
of the station-house, I thought he was Gaumata. They are so like one
another that they might be twins, and they are the handsomest men in the
kingdom."

"How you are blu