did not get altogether the better of me. As you know, King Solomon and
his royal wife did not reign together very long. They ruled over two
great kingdoms, each of which required the presence of its sovereign;
so Queen Balkis soon went back to Sheba with more wealth, more soldiers,
more camels, horses, and grand surroundings of every kind, than she had
brought with her. She carried in her baggage-train her royal throne,
but she did not take with her the beautiful Liridi. That lady had been
given in marriage to an officer in Solomon's army, and thirty years
afterward, in the land of Asshur, where her father was stationed,
I married the youngest daughter of Liridi. The latter was then dead, but
my wife, with whom I lived happily for many years in Phoenicia, was quite
as beautiful. I was greatly inclined, at the time, to send a courier with
a letter to the Queen of Sheba, informing her of what had happened; but
I was afraid. She was then an elderly woman, and I was informed that age
had actually sharpened her wits, so that if I had incensed her and given
her reason to suspect the truth about my unnatural age, I believe there
was no known country in which I could have concealed myself from her
emissaries.

"There are many, many incidents which crowd upon my memory," continued my
host, "but--" and as he spoke he pulled out his watch. "My conscience!"
he exclaimed, "it is twenty minutes past three! I should be ashamed of
myself, Mr. Randolph, for having kept you up so long."

We both rose to our feet, and I was about to say something polite, suited
to the occasion, but he gave me no chance.

"I felt I must talk to you," he said, speaking very rapidly. "I have
discovered you to be a man of appreciation--a man who should hear my
story. I have felt for some years that it would soon become impossible for