Page:Edmund Dulac's picture-book for the French Red cross.djvu/179

JUSEF AND ASENATH been told already, she was reclining on a golden couch decked with purple, woven with threads of gold, while all about it and upon were set jewels that sparkled like stars in the midnight sky. She was gazing out at the great window towards the east, when suddenly she was startled by a great commotion in the courtyard below. Slaves ran hither and thither at the word of the steward of the palace. All seemed in preparation for some great event.

'It can be naught but this,' said Asenath, 'my father hath sent a messenger saying that he is returning from his country estate, having taken tale of the harvest, for the king hath decreed that Jusef, the first ruler, shall require a toll of all in this the first year of plenty.'

'Jusef, the prime ruler,' said Ashtar, 'he will come here? Then we shall see him. They say he is as beautiful as a god.'

'They say, girl? Who say?'

'The songs,' stammered Ashtar, crestfallen, 'the—the songs of love.'

'Silence, wayward one! thou art bemused by the poets. This Jusef is a mere man like other men; was he not the son of a shepherd? Was he not a runaway? Was he not sold as a slave? Was he not cast by his master, and for some good reason, into a dungeon?'

'Yea, O my adored mistress, but was he not liberated by Pharaoh?'

'Yes, because he interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, just as any old Egyptian woman might do. Pouf! thou art bemused!'

Then Ashtar sat in silence, gazing out at the deep blue sky. Why had this Jusef's interpretation of dreams raised him to the king's favour while that of the old Egyptian women had been unheeded? Was it because he was, as the singers sang, as beautiful as a god and possessed the spirit of a god? Ashtar could not tell. Beneath the haughty frown of Asenath she sat dumb. Then, with a sigh, she sank upon her cushions, her lips trembling.

'Ashtar is bemused,' whispered the other damsels one to 127