Page:Orczy--the gates of Kamt.djvu/227

 dared not look at Hugh. I felt his presence near me as rigid as a statue, and once my ears caught the sound of a sigh, which ended almost in a sob.

"Is it for the dying Pharaoh thou sighest, oh, my beloved," suddenly said a harsh voice close behind us, "or for her who deals death and sorrow with so free a hand?"

It was Queen Maat-kha, who had glided noiselessly near, and now stood beside Hugh, tall and imperious, with an ugly look of hatred directed towards the sleeping Pharaoh and his companion. Hugh started as from a dream. He passed his hand over his eyes, as if to dispel some haunting vision, and turned to his handsome fiancée, who returned his look with a curious searching expression in her eyes.

"Thou dost not answer," she said. "Was the sigh for her?"

"Indeed, my Queen, it is sad to see so young a girl wooed by a man with one foot in the grave," replied Hugh at last, speaking with a mighty effort.

"Then thou dost not understand the girl before thee, and hast forgotten that the man, though he have one foot in the grave, has the other firmly planted on the throne of Kamt."

Princess Neit-akrit must have heard every one of Maat-kha's words, yet she took no notice of them, and remained quietly watching the sleeping Pharaoh.

"Thou hast also forgotten," added the Queen, "that 207