Nehushta, however, seemed in no hurry to answer the summons, for the queen had ample time to examine the terrace, and to glance through the hanging plants at the sunlit meadows and the flowing stream to southward, before she heard steps behind the curtain, and saw it lifted to allow the princess to pass.

The dark maiden was now fully refreshed and rested from the journey, and she came forward to greet her guest in her tunic, without her mantle, a cloud of soft white Indian gauze loosely pinned upon her black hair and half covering her neck.  Her bodice-like belt was of scarlet and gold, and from one side there hung a rich-hilted knife of Indian steel in a jewelled sheath.  The long sleeves of her tunic were drawn upon her arms into hundreds of minute folds, and where the delicate stuff hung in an oblong lappet over her hands, there was fine needlework and embroidery of gold.  She moved easily, with a languid grace of secure motion; and she bent her head a little as Atossa came quickly to meet her.

The queen’s frank smile was on her face as she grasped both Nehushta’s hands in cordial welcome, and for a moment, the two women looked into each other’s eyes.  Nehushta had made up her mind to hate Atossa from the first, but she did not belong to that class of women who allow their feelings to show themselves, and afterwards feel bound by the memory of what they have shown.  She, too, smiled most sweetly as she surveyed the beautiful fair queen from beneath her long drooping lids, and examined her appearance with all possible minuteness.  She remembered her well enough, but so warm was the welcome she received, that she almost thought she had misjudged Atossa in calling her hard and cold.  She drew her guest to the cushions upon the carpets, and they sat down side by side.

“I have been talking about you already this morning, my princess,” began Atossa, speaking at once in familiar terms, as though she were conversing with an intimate friend.  Nehushta was very proud; she knew herself to be of a race as royal as Atossa, though now almost extinct; and in answering, she spoke in the same manner as the queen; so that the latter was inwardly amused at the self-confidence of the Hebrew princess.

“Indeed?” said Nehushta, “there must be far more interesting things than I in Shushan.  I would have talked of you had I found any one to talk with.”

The queen laughed a little.

“As I was coming out this morning, I met an old friend of mine upon the balcony before the king’s apartment,—­Zoroaster, the handsome captain.  We fell into conversation, how handsome he has grown since I saw him last!” The queen watched Nehushta closely while affecting the greatest unconcern, and she thought the shadows about the princess’s eyes turned a shade darker at the mention of the brilliant warrior.  But Nehushta answered calmly enough: 

“He took the most excellent care of us.  I should like to see him to-day, to thank him for all he did.  I was tired last night and must have seemed ungrateful.”