“I have been here since I was so high”—again measuring two feet from the ground. “Did I ever take the sacred bandages from the bodies of the embalmed? Never. And yet thou couldst not be alone an hour without desecrating the dead. Isis will punish thee—Osiris will return and claim his own.”
Max listened.
He was charmed.
What a splendid actress this girl would make!
What a magnificent woman she was!—and yet in years she could be only a girl.
“You speak of Isis and Osiris as though you believed in them,” Max ventured to say.
“My belief is my own. If thou wouldst escape—if thou wouldst find the son’s son of Emin, get thee ready and I will lead thee to the desert, the way that Emin traveled.”
“Lead me from here and I will ask no more.”
“Thou art a Frank! Thou askest me to risk all, and when thou art safe I may go.”
She turned away her head to hide her tears.