“It is well,” he answered.  “Unveil thyself; here thou art safe.”

With a little sigh of weariness she unclasped the peplos and let it slip from her, giving to my sight the face and form of that beauteous girl who had stood to fan Cleopatra in the chariot.  For she was very fair and pleasant to look upon, and her Grecian robes clung sweetly about her supple limbs and budding form.  Her wayward hair, flowing in a hundred little curls, was bound in with a golden fillet, and on her feet were sandals fastened with studs of gold.  Her cheeks blushed like a flower, and her dark soft eyes were downcast, as though with modesty, but smiles and dimples trembled about her lips.

My uncle frowned when his eyes fell upon her dress.

“Why comest thou in this garb, Charmion?” he asked sternly.  “Is not the dress of thy mothers good enough for thee?  This is no time or place for woman’s vanities.  Thou art not here to conquer, but to obey.”

“Nay, be not wroth, my father,” she answered softly; “perchance thou knowest not that she whom I serve will have none of our Egyptian dress; it is out of fashion.  To wear it would have been to court suspicion—­also I came in haste.”  And as she spoke I saw that all the while she watched me covertly through the long lashes which fringed her modest eyes.

“Well, well,” he said sharply, fixing his keen glance upon her face, “doubtless thou speakest truth, Charmion.  Be ever mindful of thy oath, girl, and of the cause to which thou art sworn.  Be not light-minded, and I charge thee forget the beauty with which thou hast been cursed.  For mark thou this, Charmion:  fail us but one jot, and vengeance shall fall on thee—­the vengeance of man and the vengeance of the Gods!  To this service,” he continued, lashing himself to anger as he went on till his great voice rang in the narrow room, “thou hast been bred; to this end thou hast been instructed and placed where thou art to gain the ear of that wicked wanton whom thou seemest to serve.  See thou forget it not; see that the luxury of yonder Court does not corrupt thy purity and divert thy aim, Charmion,” and his eyes flashed and his small form seemed to grow till it attained to dignity—­nay, almost to grandeur.

“Charmion,” he went on, advancing towards her with outstretched finger, “I say that at times I do not trust thee.  But two nights gone I dreamed I saw thee standing in the desert.  I saw thee laugh and lift thy hand to heaven, and from it fell a rain of blood; then the sky sank down on the land of Khem and covered it.  Whence came the dream, girl, and what is its meaning?  I have naught against thee as yet; but hearken!  On the moment that I have, though thou art of my kin, and I have loved thee—­on that moment, I say, I will doom those delicate limbs, which thou lovest so much to show, to the kite and the jackal, and the soul within thee to all the tortures of the Gods!  Unburied shalt thou lie, and bodiless and accursed shalt thou wander in Amenti!—­ay, for ever and ever!”