“’She was clad in a clinging white robe, Martina, that left her arms and bosom bare’—­being alone, Olaf, I wore my Egyptian dress beneath my cloak, which I had laid down because of the heat of the sun.  ’She was not so very tall, yet rounded and most graceful.  Her eyes seemed large and dark, Martina, like her hair; her face was tinted like a rich-hued rose.  Oh! were I a man she seemed such a one as I should love, who, like all my people, have ever worshipped beauty.  Yet, what did I say, that she put me in mind of a nymph of Greece.  Nay, that was not so.  It was of a goddess of Old Egypt that she put me in mind, for on her face was the dreaming smile which I have seen on that of a statue of mother Isis whom the Egyptians worshipped.  Moreover, she wore just such a headdress as I have noted upon those statues.’

“Now the lady Martina answered:  ’Surely, you must have dreamed, Mistress.  The only Egyptian woman in the palace is the daughter of the old Coptic noble, Magas, who is in Olaf’s charge, and though I am told that she is not so ugly as I heard at first, Olaf has never said to me that she was like a goddess.  What you saw was doubtless some image of Fortune conjured up by your mind.  This I take to be the best of omens, who in these doubtful days grow superstitious.’

“’Would Olaf tell one woman that another was like a goddess, Martina, even though she to whom he spoke was his god-mother and a dozen years younger than himself?  Come,’ she added, ’and let us see if we can find this Egyptian.’

“Then,” Heliodore went on, “not knowing what to do, I stood still there against the rockwork and the flowers till presently, round the bushes, appeared the splendid lady and Martina.”

Now when I, Olaf, heard all this, I groaned and said: 

“Oh!  Heliodore, it was the Augusta herself.”

“Yes, it was the Augusta, as I learned presently.  Well, they came, and I curtsied to them.

“‘Are you the daughter of Magas, the Egyptian?’ asked the lady, eyeing me from head to foot.

“‘Yes, Madam,’ I answered.  ’I am Heliodore, the daughter of Magas.  I pray that I have done no wrong in walking in this garden, but the General Olaf, the Master of the Palace, gave me leave to come here.’

“’And did the General Olaf, whom we know as Michael, give you that necklace which you wear, also, O Daughter of Magas?  Nay, you must needs answer me, for I am the Augusta.’

“Now I curtsied again, and said: 

“’Not so, O Augusta; the necklace is from Old Egypt, and was found upon the body of a royal lady in a tomb.  I have worn it for many years.’

“’Indeed, and that which the General Michael wears came also from a tomb.’

“‘Yes, he told me so, Augusta,’ I said.

“’It would seem that the two must once have been one, Daughter of Magas?’

“‘It may be so, Augusta; I do not know.’

“Now the Empress looked about her, and the lady Martina, dropping behind, began to fan herself.