"Mena!" she cried. "Come here!"
The Egyptian advanced slowly, with an indefinable insolence in his bearing.
"Find out what is causing all this excitement in the city and bring me word," Thais said.
"Why should my lady be interested?" Mena replied coolly, with a smile that showed his white teeth.
Thais wheeled as though she had been stung. She looked at the Egyptian with head erect, and there was something in her eyes that caused his to fall before them.
"Mena," she said softly, "do not think that, because you are set to watch me, you are my master. Go, or I swear by Astoreth that you shall be flayed alive from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet."
Mena gasped, and moistened his dry lips with his tongue.
"Pardon," he stammered. "I did not mean—"
"I know well what you meant," Thais returned. "Go!"
He turned and went. Thais grasped a branch of the shrubbery and tore it away, crumpling the leaves in her hands and scattering them in a bruised shower at her feet.