“It was a damnable idea,” said Hugh, with true British emphasis. “She must have taken me for a fool to think that I should not see through her artful game.”
“Queen Maat-kha seems certainly to have vowed deadly hatred to her royal niece. I wonder why.”
“Feminine jealousy, I suppose. All the more serious as the lady seems to have very few scruples hidden about her fine person. It strikes me that I shall have to extend a protecting hand over my defrauded kinswoman.”
“My dear Girlie, it strikes me that that young woman will need no protection, and that, for aught you know, she bids fair to be your most dangerous enemy. She is evidently very beautiful, and a beautiful woman deprived of her rights, justly or unjustly, always has a large following.”
“A statement worthy of your best college days, oh, Doctor Sagacissime. Well! we will not despise an enemy worthy of our steel. So far we have had nothing but triumph, and easy conquests might begin to pall. But I’ll tell you what we can do, old chap,” he added with his merry, infectious laugh, “that which shall disarm our bitterest foe, if indeed she be one. You shall enter the lists for Princess Neit-akrit’s hand, marry her, and when presently I leave this fair land to return to the foot of the throne of Ra, I shall solemnly appoint you and your heirs my successors to the double crown of Kamt.”
“I’ll tell you what you had better not do,” I rejoined half crossly, “and that is to fall in love yourself with the fascinating lady. Everyone seems to be doing it about here.”
“Oh, I?” he said, suddenly becoming serious, and with a touch of sadness. “I am here with a purpose, altogether besides my own self. I have to prove to the world that neither my father nor I were fools or liars. I must study the life, the government, the art of the men; my heart is crusted over with fragments of papyrus and mummies, it is impervious even to the beauty of these warm-blooded women.”
“For shame, Girlie! at your age!”
“I have no age, Mark, only a number of wasted years behind me, and a few on ahead, which I am determined shall be well filled.”
It was a beautiful starlit night, and the crescent moon shone wonderfully bright over the ancient city, with its marble edifices, its water-streets, which wound in and out among mimosa and acacia groves like a bright blue ribbon covered with glistening gems. As they rowed the boatmen sang a sweet, monotonous barcarolle, and from east and west, and north and south, at regular intervals, fanfares of trumpets greeted the crescent moon as she rose.