Page:Orczy--the gates of Kamt.djvu/123

 and blood, her instinct was to render that rival helpless, before it was too late.

That her suggestion was cruel and abominable goes without saying; that it would have no effect upon Hugh I felt, of course, quite sure; he turned to her and said, with quiet sarcasm:

"Dost hate thy young kinswoman so deeply, then, that thou dost ask me to formulate so monstrous a command?" But like a cat who has shown her claws before she is ready to spring, and hides them again under the velvety paw, Queen Maat-kha said, with the sweetest of smiles and a look of childish astonishment:

"Thou makest a mock of thy servant, oh, my beloved! Thy words are but a jest, I know. I hate no one, least of all my sister's child."

"Dost fear her then?"

"Not as long as thou art near me," she said, throwing, with sudden impulse, a pair of very beautiful arms round Hugh's neck. "Wilt tell me that thou dost love me?"

"I claimed thee as my bride before the throne of Ra," he answered quietly.

"Wilt prove thy love for me?"

"It needs no other proof."

"Wilt bind thyself to grant me a request?"

"Command, oh, queen; I will obey if the gods allow."

"Stay by my side in the palace," she pleaded; "go not forth by night or by day beyond the walls of Men-ne-fer. Men-ne-fer is beautiful and great; it shall be a feast to thine eyes, until the day when our barges will bear us to Tanis, there to be made man and wife."

"Wilt hold me a prisoner of love?" he said, smiling. "I know not if I can thus bind myself to thy feet,