‘Why, what’s that?’
‘My mother’s last aspiration, the dying legacy of her passionate soul, known only to me, and never breathed to human being until this moment.’
‘Then you recollect your mother?’
‘It was my nurse, long since dead, who was the depositary of the injunction, and in due time conveyed it to me.’
‘And what was it?’
‘To raise, at Deir el Kamar, the capital of our district, a marble temple to the Syrian goddess.’
‘Beautiful idea!’
‘It would have drawn back the mountain to the ancient faith; the Druses are half-prepared, and wait only my word.’
‘But the Nazareny bishops,’ said the Queen, ‘whom you find so useful, what will they say?’
‘What did the priests and priestesses of the Syrian goddess say, when Syria became Christian? They turned into bishops and nuns. Let them turn back again.’