"Yes, you will; I will call you as soon as I can and we will go to Him together!"
He spoke no more, and raising his knees as before put his chin on them and wept, covering his face with his hands.
She put her arm round his head and pressed it to her bosom, stroking it gently with the other hand.
Shiha, the eunuch, was right: the king did not know how to cry: he swallowed his tears convulsively, choked, trembled as in a shivering fit. But Dio's caress gradually calmed him, and he only shuddered from time to time with a sob like a child tired of crying.
"Perhaps you are right," he began again, "and I shall perish senselessly. Saakera wants to kill himself; perhaps I do also.... Dio, my sister, oh if you only could...."
"What is it? Tell me."
"If you could only tell me whether I ought to go away?"
Dio knew that the right answer was "no one but yourself can tell." But she also knew that saying this would mean abandoning him—the naked child upon the naked earth.
She pressed his head to her bosom and said:
"You ought."