“Dost fear her then?”
“Not as long as thou art near me,” she said, throwing, with sudden impulse, a pair of very beautiful arms round Hugh’s neck. “Wilt tell me that thou dost love me?”
“I claimed thee as my bride before the throne of Ra,” he answered quietly.
“Wilt prove thy love for me?”
“It needs no other proof.”
“Wilt bind thyself to grant me a request?”
“Command, oh, queen; I will obey if the gods allow.”
“Stay by my side in the palace,” she pleaded; “go not forth by night or by day beyond the walls of Men-ne-fer. Men-ne-fer is beautiful and great; it shall be a feast to thine eyes, until the day when our barges will bear us to Tanis, there to be made man and wife.”
“Wilt hold me a prisoner of love?” he said, smiling. “I know not if I can thus bind myself to thy feet, beautiful as thou art. My counsellor will tell thee that it is meet I shall visit my people and see the cities wherein dwell my future subjects. Dost begrudge them that, which already messengers have gone forth to announce?”
“Ay, I begrudge every moment which takes thee away from me. Presently, to-night, when Isis has risen to illumine the night, thou wilt go to sit beside the Pharaoh, in the judgment-hall of Kamt, to pronounce sentence of life and death on all those who have erred or sinned against our laws. That hour will be martyrdom to me. Think of what I should suffer if thou wert absent for a day and a night.”