"If you have power to lie in one thing, you have
power to lie in all. She who can steal the loveliness of Egypt's self,
can also steal the signet of the god."
"Say, did you, O Rames, also steal that other signet on your hand, a
Queen's gift, I think, that once a Pharaoh wore? Say also how did you
lose the little finger of that hand? Was it perchance in the maw of a
certain god that dwells in the secret pool of a temple at holy Thebes?"
So Tua spake, and waited a while, but Rames said nothing. He opened his
mouth to answer, indeed, but a dumbness sealed his lips.
"Nurse," she went on presently, "I cannot persuade this Lord that I am
Egypt and no other. Try you."
So Asti loosed her black veil, and let it fall about her feet. He stared
at her noble features and grey hair, then, uttering a great cry of
"Mother, my Mother, who they swore to me was dead in Memphis," he flung
himself upon her breast, and there burst into weeping.
"Aye, Rames," said Asti presently, "your Mother, she who bore you, and
no other woman, and with her one who because her royal heart loves you
now as from the first, from moon to moon for two whole years has braved
the dangers of the desert, and of wicked men, till at last Amen her
father brings her safely to your side.
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