Though scrupulous in practising the usual forms and observances towards his lord, the eunuch scarcely affected to ignore his own real superiority, affirming only that his words and deeds were prompted by the immediate inspiration of his god.
"And Baal bids him store up goodly treasures for himself, you may be sure," observed Kalmim, discussing with her old admirer the character of their new and arbitrary ruler; "so that at any time he may win over the spearmen with spoil, as he secured the priests by promises, and the prophets of the grove by threats. Gold and steel, Sethos—these are the only real forces on earth, and I sometimes think there is no power that can dominate them in heaven."
"Good faith," answered Sethos, "is precious as the one and true as the other. I have never wavered, Kalmim, in my loyalty to Ninyas, nor my love for you."
"And what have they profited you?" she retorted lightly. "You stood by the prince in good and evil, eating with him the bitter morsel and sharing the cup of affliction. One fine morning, Baal forsooth sends a fat man in white to pull the king of nations out of a prison-house and put him in a palace with a royal mantle on his shoulders, and a golden sceptre in his hand. Then comes the cup-bearer, who has proved his readiness to go to the gates of death with his lord, and asks to be made leader of the host and to stand on the king's right hand, in the day of his glory as in the night of his bondage. What said Ninyas to the poor youth, in answer to so modest a request?"
"He laughed in my face," replied the other, with considerable irritation. "And if there is justice in heaven it will be repaid him fourfold. May the king live for ever!"
"So much for loyalty to a prince," she continued. "Now for truth to a woman. Have you really kept faith with me, Sethos, all this time? It is many a long day since you and I first met by a strange chance in the queen's paradise, and you told me—I forget what you told me, but it was something very foolish, no doubt."
"You know I have," said Sethos bitterly, almost fiercely, turning his head away while he spoke.
It was a short answer, but to a woman's ear worth a whole series of protestations. In perception of such matters, Kalmim was no whit behind her sex.
If he had but looked at her, he would have seen her blush, and surely in no encounter whatsoever should a man take his eye off his enemy. Sethos, alas, was completely at the adversary's mercy, and she trampled him accordingly.
"Well, and what has this service, also, profited you for your pains?" she asked in taunting accents, wholly unable to forbear the pleasure of tormenting him. "You have stood by me at my need faithfully, nobly, grudging nothing, keeping nothing back. When the time comes, you will ask me too to make you my captain and leader, to seat you on my right hand till I die, and, Sethos, I too—I shall laugh in your face!"