d of the table, pale as death, staring into
the wine-cup as if unconscious of what was going on around hint. But at
the sight of his brother his fist clenched.

He would neither speak to him, nor answer his questions. The longer he
sat there gazing into vacancy, the firmer became his conviction that
Nitetis had deceived him,--that she had pretended to love him while her
heart really belonged to Bartja. How shamefully they had made sport of
him! How deeply rooted must have been the faithlessness of this clever
hypocrite, if the mere news that his brother loved some one else could
not only destroy all her powers of dissimulation, but actually deprive
her of consciousness!

When Nitetis left the hall, Otanes, the father of Phaedime had called
out: "The Egyptian women seem to take great interest in the love-affairs
of their brothers-in-law. The Persian women are not so generous with
their feelings; they keep them for their husbands."

Cambyses was too proud to let it be seen that he had heard these words;
like the ostrich, he feigned deafness and blindness in order not to seem
aware of the looks and murmurs of his guests, which all went to prove
that he had been deceived.

Bartja could have had no share in her perfidy; she had loved this
handsome youth, and perhaps all the more because she had not been able
to hope for a return of her love. If he had had the slightest suspicion
of his brother, he would have killed him on the spot. Bartja was
certainly innocent of any share in the deception and in his brother's
misery, but still he was the cause of all; so the old grudge, which
had only just been allowed to slumber, woke again; and, as a relapse is
always more dangerous than the original illness, the newly-roused anger
was more violent than what he had formerly felt.

He thought and thought, but he could not devise a fitting punishment for
this false woman. Her death would not content his vengeance, she must
suffer something worse than mere death!

Should he send her back to Egypt, disgraced and shamed? Oh, no! she
loved her country, and she would be received by her parents with
open arms. Should he, after she had confessed her guilt, (for he was
determined to force a confession from her) shut her up in a solitary
dungeon? or should he deliver her over to Boges, to be the servant of
his concubines? Yes! now he had hit upon the right punishment. Thus the
faithless creature should be disciplined, and the hypocrite, who h