by chance, the lighted chamber;
but Kasana and her late guest had matters to discuss that brooked no
witnesses, and her "dear child" only permitted her to light her little
lamp at the three-armed candelabra, and then sent her to rest.

She promptly obeyed and, in the dark room, where her couch stood beside
that of her mistress, she sank down, hid her face in her hands, and
wept.

She felt as though the world was upside down. She no longer understood
her darling Kasana; for she was sacrificing purity and honor for the
sake of a man whom--she knew it--her soul abhorred.

CHAPTER XXI.

Ephriam cowered in the shadow of the tent, from which he had slipped,
and pressed his ear close to the wall. He had cautiously ripped a
small opening in a seam of the cloth, so he could see and hear what was
passing in the lighted room of the woman he loved. The storm kept every
one within the tents whom duty did not summon into the open air, and
Ephraim had less reason to fear discovery on account of the deep shadow
that rested on the spot where he lay. The nurse's cloak covered him
and, though shiver after shiver shook his young limbs, it was due to the
bitter anguish that pierced his soul.

The man on whose breast he saw Kasana lay her head was a prince, a
person of high rank and great power, and the capricious beauty did not
always repel the bold man, when his lips sought those for whose kiss
Ephraim so ardently longed.

She owed him nothing, it is true, yet her heart belonged to his uncle,
whom she had preferred to all others. She had declared herself ready to
endure the most terrible things for his liberation; and now his own eyes
told him that she was false and faithless, that she granted to another
what belonged to one alone. She had bestowed caresses on him, too, but
these were only the crumbs that fell from Hosea's table, a robbery--he
confessed it with a blush--he had perpetrated on his uncle, yet he
felt offended, insulted, deceived, and consumed to his inmost soul with
fierce jealousy on behalf of his uncle, whom he honored, nay, loved,
though he had opposed his wishes.

And Hosea? Why, he too, like himself, this princely suitor, and all
other men, must love her, spite of his strange conduct at the well by
the roadside--it was impossible for him to do otherwise--and now, safe
from the poor prisoner's resentment, she was basely, treacherously
enjoying another's tender caresses.

Siptah, he had heard at their last