"Three years agone, as thou knowest well, my lord, he wedded me in Syria."
"Eh—what!" cried the puzzled King. "In truth he is thy spouse?"
"Aye," she nodded happily, "in defiance of his master's will; and thought—the foolish boy—to blind the eyes of the Eagle of Assyria. Yet as for me, my lord, I laughed, for well I knew that the vanities of man must come to dust. What! I asked him, is thy master a fool whose eye can fathom naught beyond his nose? Nay, King Ninus is a god whose wisdom marketh the works of lesser men, and he smileth because of them. Therefore, since Ninus knoweth all, he will treasure up this jest till such a time as Menon cometh unto Nineveh, and will rally him in the sight of all the court. Speak then, O generous lord, that thy courtiers may laugh with thee."
The monarch made no answer. He was like unto a man who stood between two ditches, each too wide to spring across, yet spring he must. To admit a knowledge of his governor's disobedience, would mean forgiveness where the measure of his wrath was fain to fall; and yet denial stamped him, not as a high, far-seeing god, but a mortal fool whose vision ceased at the tip of his royal nose. So Ninus pondered thoughtfully.
"How now, my lord," asked Semiramis with her witch's smile, "in truth dids't thou not know of this joyous happening from the first?"
"Aye," growled Ninus, savagely, "I knew it—from the first."
CHAPTER XIV
THE TURN OF A WOMAN'S TONGUE
For many days the mind of the King was troubled by a fractious mood. He strove to nurse an anger against Semiramis, yet, even as he brooded, his thought would trail away from the wrong she had put upon him, and linger on the witchery of the woman's eyes.
"Heh!" he muttered, savagely. "This imp is not an imp to be forgotten in a day!"