Nefertiti
Then why are you so solemn, your eyes so far away, your voice so distant? This crisis that you speak of—it could not take you from me?
Menophis
Nothing can take you from me, or me from you—for long. The chain of our past and future lives is bound together beyond all breaking.
Nefertiti
What is it, then, that frightens me?
Menophis
(With grave tenderness.) Ah, Nefertiti, Little Child, to-night I stand—we stand together—at the very gates of life. The choice is difficult, for it involves you too. Since first, three years ago, I saw you flitting, like a swallow, down the river bank at Memphis—since those enchanted days I have had no other human love but you——
Nefertiti