THE KING
Ah, yes.
[He strikes upon a gong, and an Attendant enters, walks straight past the King and bows before the idol; he then walks back to the centre of the stage and bows before the King.
THE KING
Bring the new prophet hither.
[Exit Attendant. Enter the King's Overseer holding a roll of paper. He passes the King, bows to the idol, returns to the front of the King, kneels, and remains kneeling with bended head.
THE KING (speaking in the meanwhile to the Second Queen on his immediate right)
We are making a beautiful arbor for you, O Atharlia, at an end of the great garden. There shall be iris-flowers that you love and all things that grow by streams. And the stream there shall be small and winding like one of those in your country. I shall bring a stream a new way from the mountains. (Turning to Queen Oxara on his extreme right) And for you, too, O Oxara, we shall make a pleasance. I shall have rocks brought from the quarries for you, and my idle slaves shall make a hill and plant it with mountain shrubs, and you can sit there in the winter thinking of the North. (To the kneeling Overseer) Ah, what is here?
THE KING'S OVERSEER
The plans of your royal garden, Majesty. The slaves have dug it for five years and rolled the paths.