O Lady Neferte, this must be my excuse, that I have no choice. By
fortune, good or ill, I know not which, this day I beheld your face,
and now but one desire is left to me, to behold it again, and for all my
life. Lady, the Goddess of Love, she, whom in Egypt you name Hathor, has
made me her slave, so that I no longer think of pomp or power or wealth,
or of other women, but of you and you only. Lady, I would do you no
harm, for I offer you half my throne. You and you alone shall be my
Queen. Speak now."
"King Janees," answered Tua, "what evil spirit has entered into you that
you should wish to make a Queen of a singing-girl, the daughter of a
merchant who has wandered to your city? Let me go, and keep that high
place for one of the great ones of the earth. Send now to Abi, who I
have heard rules as Pharaoh in Egypt, and ask a daughter of his blood,
for they say that he has several; or to some of the princes of Syria, or
to the King of Byblos by Lebanon, or to the lords of Kesh, or across
the desert to the Emperor of Punt, and let this poor singing-girl go her
ways.
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