“Her Highness will not come. If you had seen Ana, he would perhaps have told you that she has sworn not to look upon my face again, unless above it shines a crown.”
“Oh! how can a woman be so cruel? Surely, Prince, such a stab must cut you to the heart,” she exclaimed, with a little cry of pity.
“Her Highness is not only a woman; she is a Princess of Egypt which is different. For the rest it does cut me to the heart that my royal sister should have deserted me, for that which she loves better—power and pomp. But so it is, unless Ana dreams. It seems therefore that we are in the same case, both outcasts, you and I, is it not so?”
She made no answer but continued to look upon the ground, and he went on very slowly:
“A thought comes into my mind on which I would ask your judgment. If two who are forlorn came together they would be less forlorn by half, would they not?”
“It would seem so, Prince—that is if they remained forlorn at all. But I do not understand the riddle.”
“Yet you have answered it. If you are lonely and I am lonely apart, we should, you say, be less lonely together.”
“Prince,” she murmured, shrinking away from him, “I spoke no such words.”
“No, I spoke them for you. Hearken to me, Merapi. They think me a strange man in Egypt because I have held no woman dear, never having seen one whom I could hold dear.” Here she looked at him searchingly, and he went on, “A while ago, before I visited your land of Goshen—Ana can tell you about the matter, for I think he wrote it down—Ki and old Bakenkhonsu came to see me. Now, as you know, Ki is without doubt a great magician, though it would seem not so great as some of your prophets. He told me that he and others had been searching out my future and that in Goshen I should find a woman whom it was fated I must love. He added that this woman would bring me much joy.” Here Seti paused, doubtless remembering this was not all that Ki had said, or Jabez either. “Ki told me also,” he went on slowly, “that I had already known this woman for thousands of years.”
She started and a strange look came into her face.