Now for the song."
Then, her moment come at last, Tua stood up, and holding the ivory harp
beneath her veil, she swept its golden chords. Disguising her voice,
as Asti had done, she began to sing, somewhat low, a short and gentle
love-song, which soon came to an end.
"It is pretty," said Rames, when she had finished, "and reminds me of
I know not what. But have you no fuller music at your command? If so, I
would listen to it before I bid you good-night."
She bent her head and answered almost in a whisper:
"Lord, if you wish it, I will sing you the story of one who dared to
set his heart too high, and of what befell him at the hands of an angry
goddess."
"Sing on," he answered. "Once I heard such a story--elsewhere."
Then Tua swept her harp and sang again, but this time with all her
strength and soul. As the first glorious notes floated from her lips
Rames rose from his seat, and stood staring at her entranced. On went
the song, and on, as she had sung it in the banqueting hall of Pharaoh
at Thebes, so she sang it in the chamber of Rames at Napata.
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