“I said that it cannot be.  Such ties between an Egyptian and an Israelite are not lawful.”

“Some in this city and elsewhere seem to find them so.”

“And I am married, I mean perhaps I am married—­at least in name.”

“And I too am married, I mean——­”

“That is different.  Also there is another reason, the greatest of all, I am under a curse, and should bring you, not joy as Ki said, but sorrow, or, at the least, sorrow with the joy.”

He looked at her searchingly.

“Has Ana——­” he began, then continued, “if so what lives have you known that are not compounded of mingled joy and sorrow?”

“None.  But the woe I should bring would outweigh the joy—­to you.  The curse of my God rests upon me and I cannot learn to worship yours.  The curse of my people rests upon me, the law of my people divides me from you as with a sword, and should I draw close to you these will be increased upon my head, which matters not, but also upon yours,” and she began to sob.

“Tell me,” he said, taking her by the hand, “but one thing, and if the answer is No, I will trouble you no more.  Is your heart mine?”

“It is,” she sighed, “and has been ever since my eyes fell upon you yonder in the streets of Tanis.  Oh! then a change came into me and I hated Laban, whom before I had only misliked.  Moreover, I too felt that of which Ki spoke, as though I had known you for thousands of years.  My heart is yours, my love is yours; all that makes me woman is yours, and never, never can turn from you to any other man.  But still we must stay apart, for your sake, my Prince, for your sake.”

“Then, were it not for me, you would be ready to run these hazards?”

“Surely!  Am I not a woman who loves?”

“If that be so,” he said with a little laugh, “being of full age and of an understanding which some have thought good, by your leave I think I will run them also.  Oh! foolish woman, do you not understand that there is but one good thing in the world, one thing in which self and its miseries can be forgot, and that thing is love?  Mayhap troubles will come.  Well, let them come, for what do they matter if only the love or its memory remains, if once we have picked that beauteous flower and for an hour worn it on our breasts.  You talk of the difference between the gods we worship and maybe it exists, but all gods send their gifts of love upon the earth, without which it would cease to be.  Moreover, my faith teaches me more clearly perhaps than yours, that life does not end with death and therefore that love, being life’s soul, must endure while it endures.  Last of all, I think, as you think, that in some dim way there is truth in what the magicians said, and that long ago in the past we have been what once more we are about to be, and that the strength of this invisible tie has drawn us together out of the whole world and will bind us together long after the world is dead.  It is not a matter of what we wish to do, Merapi, it is a matter of what Fate has decreed we shall do.  Now, answer again.”