Glorious she looked indeed, a figure of flame set in the midst of
darkness. The royal robe she wore glittered in the sunlight, glittered
her sceptre, her jewels, and the _uraei_ on her Double Crown, but more
than all of them glittered her fierce and splendid eyes. Indeed,
there was something so terrible in those eyes that the beholders who
discovered them thus suddenly, shrank back, whispering to each other
that here sat a goddess, not a woman. For in her calmness, her proud
beauty and her silence, she seemed like an immortal, one victorious who
had triumphed over death, not a woman who for seven days had starved
within a tower.
They shrank back, they huddled themselves together in the doorway, and
there remained whispering till the growing light fell on them also. But
the figure on the throne took no heed, only stared over their heads as
though it were lost in mystery and thought.
At length Kaku, gathering courage, said to Abi:
"O Prince, there is your bride, such a bride as never man had before.
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