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 at keeping his comfortable lazy position at her feet. But his mistress suddenly seemed in a teasing mood, for she tore a branch of roses from a great bush which stood in a vase close beside her and began to playfully prick with it the kingly Sen-tur on the nose.

Soon his majesty's temper was up, and lazily at first, then more and more viciously, he made great dabs at the branch and then at Neit-akrit's hand with his ponderous paw.

"A dangerous game surely, Princess," said Hugh, after a while. "Sen-tur might lose control over his temper and might do thee an injury."

"An injury? Sen-tur?" she said, with a laugh. "Thou speakest in jest, or thou dost not know Sen-tur. At a word from me he becomes as furious as the maddest bull in Kamt, and his roar is like the thunder, and at a whisper from me he will again be as quiet as a lamb. But never would Sen-tur's wrath turn against his mistress."

"Thou holdest him in bondage," I said, with a somewhat clumsy attempt at gallantry, "as thou dost all men, high and low. Sen-tur is favoured indeed."

"Sen-tur loves me, and I love Sen-tur," she said drily; "he is the most precious treasure I possess, for he is wholly mine, and he has no cares, no affections, no thought save for me. He is dearer to me than the kingdom of Kamt."

"It is a merciful decree of Ra, then," said Hugh, with a smile, "that he sent me to take the kingdom of Kamt from thee and not Sen-tur."

"Believe me," she rejoined, looking steadfastly at him, "that all-powerful Ra showed his love for Neit-akrit the day that he decreed that the double crown of Kamt should never sit upon her brow."

Somehow, in spite of this earnest assurance, I did