Page:Thotharomance00nichgoog.djvu/115

110 strongest passion is hatred and contempt for women."

As he ended his narration Daphne shuddered, for she thought she read in his eyes signs of lust depraved by malignant cruelty, and that he regarded her with all the loathing he had just described. Then she reflected on her helpless condition and on the misery she had witnessed, and swiftly determined to seek a refuge in death. Already with this notion in her mind she had provided herself with a dagger, and with a trembling hand she seized it. Then she raised her courage, and looking Thoth steadfastly in the face, she cried—

"I at least will never be degraded, and thus I escape from thy snare."

She raised the knife, and was about to plunge it into her heart when Thoth seized her arm, and said—

"Stay thy hand,—thou hast heard but half