During the sixth of Hator she ate nothing all day and would see no person.
When the slave woman brought in a light after sun-down,
Kama lay on the bed, after she had wound herself in a shawl. She ordered the slave to go out as quickly as possible; then she sat in an armchair at a distance from the lamp, and passed some hours in a half- waking stupor.
"There are no spots," said she, "and if there are, they are not spots of that kind! They are not leprosy. O ye gods!" cried she, throwing herself on the pavement. "It cannot be that I O ye gods, save me! I will go back to the temple; I will do life-long penance I have no spots. I have been rubbing my skin for some days; that is why it is red. Again, how could I have it; has any one ever heard that a priestess and a woman of the heir to the throne could have leprosy? O ye gods! that never has happened since the world began. Only fishermen, prisoners, and vile Jews Oh, that low Jewess! Heavenly powers, oh, send down leprosy to her!"
At that moment some shadow passed by the window on the first story. Then a rustle was heard, and from the door to the middle of the room sprang in Lykon.
Kama was amazed. She seized her head suddenly, and in her eyes immense terror was depicted.
"Lykon!" whispered she. "Thou here, Lykon? Be off! They are searching for thee."
"I know," answered the Greek, with a jeering laugh. "All the Phoenicians are hunting me, and all the police of his holiness. Still I am with thee, and I have been in thy lord's chamber."
"Wert Thou with the prince?"
"Yes; in his own bedchamber. And I should have left a dagger in his breast if the evil spirits had not saved him. Evidently he went to some other woman, not to thee."