His—King Akhnaton's, she understood.
"And you don't want to go to the next world—not even with me?" she asked, with provocative slyness.
"Why do you talk like this, Dio? You know I cannot..."
He broke off, but she understood again: "I cannot relinquish the faith of my forefathers; step over my father's blood." She knew that his father, an old priest of Amon, was killed in a popular rising against the new god Aton.
Tears trembled in his voice when he said 'I cannot,' but he controlled himself and said calmly.
"Do not go out to-day."
"Why?"
He answered after a pause:
"Maybe there will be a riot."
"Come, come, riot in a country like yours!" she laughed. "You Egyptians are the most peaceable people on earth!"