they gave her fell idly on her ears, nor did she think anything of
the bowings of courtiers and of priests--but from some strength within
herself. She it was that set the games they played, and when she talked
he was obliged to listen, for although she was so sound and healthy,
this Tua differed from other children.

Thus she had what she called her "silent hours" when she would suffer no
one to come near her, not her ladies or her foster-mother, Asti herself,
nor even Rames. Then, followed by the women at a distance, she would
wander among the great columns of the temple and study the sculptures
on the walls; and, since all places were open to her, Pharaoh's child,
enter the sanctuaries, and stare at the gods that sat in them fashioned
in granite and in alabaster. This she would do even in the solemn
moonlight when mortals were afraid to approach these sacred shrines, and
come thence unconcerned and smiling.

"What do you see there, O Morning Star?" asked little Rames of her once.
"They are dull things, those stone gods that have never moved since the
beginning of the world; also they frighten me, especially when Ra is
set."

"They are not dull, and they do not frighten me," answered Tua; "they
talk to me, and although I cannot understand all they say, I am happy
with them."

"Talk!" he said contemptuously, "how can stones talk?"

"I do not know. I think it is their spirits that talk, telling me
stories which happened before I was born and that shall happen after
I am dead, yes, and after _they_ seem to be dead. Now be silent--I say