and the queen was sure that Solomon had never seen her, for it was her custom to keep her most beautiful attendants in the background.  This maiden the queen caused to be dressed in the richest and most becoming robes, and adorned her, besides, with jewels and golden ornaments, which set off her beauty in an amazing manner.  Then, having made many inquiries of me in regard to the habits of Solomon, she ordered Liridi to walk alone in one of the broad paths of the royal gardens at the time when the king was wont to stroll there by himself.  The queen wished to find out whether this charming apparition would cause the king to forget her for a time, and she ordered me to be in the garden, and so arrange my rambles that I could, without being observed, notice what happened when the king should meet Liridi.  I was on hand before the appointed time, and when I saw the girl walking slowly up the shaded avenue, I felt obliged to go to her and tell her that she was too soon, and that she must not meet Solomon near the palace.  As I spoke to her I was amazed at her wonderful beauty, and I did not believe it possible that the king could gaze upon her without such emotion as would make him forget for the moment every other woman in the world.

“The queen had purposely made an appointment with him for the same hour, so that if he did not come she would know what was detaining him.  At length Solomon appeared at the far end of the avenue, and Liridi began again her pensive stroll.  When the king reached her, she retired to one side, her head bowed, as if she had not expected to meet royalty in this secluded spot.  King Solomon was deep in thought as he walked, but when he came near the maiden, he raised his eyes and suddenly stopped.  I was near by, behind some shrubbery, and it was plain enough to me that he was dazzled by this lovely apparition.  He asked her who she was, and when she had told him he gazed at her with still greater attention.  Then suddenly he laughed aloud.  ‘Go tell the queen,’ said he, ’that she hath missed her mark.  The arrow which is adorned with golden trappings and precious stones cannot fly aright.’  Then he went on, still laughing to himself.  In the evening he told me about this incident, and said that if the maiden had been arrayed in the simple robes which became her station he would have suspected nothing, and would probably have stopped to converse with her so long that he would have failed to keep his appointment with his royal guest.

[Illustration:  “‘Go tell the queen’”]

“The queen was very much annoyed at the ill success of her little artifice, but it was not long after this that she and the king discovered their true feeling for each other, and they were soon married.  The wedding was a grand one—­grander than tradition relates, grander than the modern mind can easily comprehend.  When they went to the palace to sit for the first time in state before the vast assembly of dignitaries and courtiers, the queen found,