“Would Egypt suffer this, Prince?”

“I do not know, nor does it matter since she hates Amenmeses, who is strong-willed and ambitious, and will have none of him.  Also he is already married.”

“Is there no other royal one whom she might take, Prince?”

“None.  Moreover she wishes me alone.”

“Why, Prince?”

“Because of ancient custom which she worships.  Also because she knows me well and in her fashion is fond of me, whom she believes to be a gentle-minded dreamer that she can rule.  Lastly, because I am the lawful heir to the Crown and without me to share it, she thinks that she would never be safe upon the Throne, especially if I should marry some other woman, of whom she would be jealous.  It is the Throne she desires and would wed, not the Prince Seti, her half-brother, whom she takes with it to be in name her husband, as Pharaoh commands that she should do.  Love plays no part in Userti’s breast, Ana, which makes her the more dangerous, since what she seeks with a cold heart of policy, that she will surely find.”

“Then it would seem, Prince, that the cage is built about you.  After all it is a very splendid cage and made of gold.”

“Yes, Ana, yet not one in which I would live.  Still, except by death how can I escape from the threefold chain of the will of Pharaoh, of Egypt, and of Userti?  Oh!” he went on in a new voice, one that had in it both sorrow and passion, “this is a matter in which I would have chosen for myself who in all others must be a servant.  And I may not choose!”

“Is there perchance some other lady, Prince?”

“None!  By Hathor, none—­at least I think not.  Yet I would have been free to search for such a one and take her when I found her, if she were but a fishergirl.”

“The Kings of Egypt can have large households, Prince.”

“I know it.  Are there not still scores whom I should call aunt and uncle?  I think that my grandsire, Rameses, blessed Egypt with quite three hundred children, and in so doing in a way was wise, since thus he might be sure that, while the world endures, in it will flow some the blood that once was his.”

“Yet in life or death how will that help him, Prince?  Some must beget the multitudes of the earth, what does it matter who these may have been?”

“Nothing at all, Ana, since by good or evil fortune they are born.  Therefore, why talk of large households?  Though, like any man who can pay for it, Pharaoh may have a large household, I seek a queen who shall reign in my heart as well as on my throne, not a ‘large household,’ Ana.  Oh!  I am weary.  Pambasa, come hither and conduct my secretary, Ana, to the empty room that is next to my own, the painted chamber which looks toward the north, and bid my slaves attend to all his wants as they would to mine.”

“Why did you tell me you were a scribe, my lord Ana?” asked Pambasa, as he led me to my beautiful sleeping-place.