tire. Art thou set toward ambition? She will unlock thy inner heart,
and show thee roads that lead to glory. Art thou worn and weary? She has
comfort in her breast. Art thou fallen? She can lift thee up, and to the
illusion of thy sense gild defeat with triumph. Ay, Harmachis, she can
do these things, for Nature ever fights upon her side; and while she
does them she can deceive and shape a secret end in which thou hast
no part. And thus Woman rules the world. For her are wars; for her men
spend their strength in gathering gains; for her they do well and ill,
and seek for greatness, to find oblivion. But still she sits like yonder
Sphinx, and smiles; and no man has ever read all the riddle of her
smile, or known all the mystery of her heart. Mock not! mock not!
Harmachis; for he must be great indeed who can defy the power of Woman,
which, pressing round him like the invisible air, is often strongest
when the senses least discover it."

I laughed aloud. "Thou speakest earnestly, my uncle Sepa," I said;
"one might almost think that thou hadst not come unscathed through this
fierce fire of temptation. Well, for myself, I fear not woman and her
wiles; I know naught of them, and naught do I wish to know; and I still
hold that this Cæsar was a fool. Had I stood where Cæsar stood, to cool
its wantonness that bale of rugs should have been rolled down the palace
steps, into the harbour mud."

"Nay, cease! cease!" he cried aloud. "It is evil to speak thus; may the
Gods avert the omen and preserve to thee this cold strength of which
thou boastest. Oh! man, thou knowest not!--thou in thy strength and
beauty that is without compare, in the power of thy learning and the
sweetness of thy tongue--thou knowest not! The world where thou must mix
is not a sanctuary as that of the Divine Isis. But there--it may be so!
Pray that thy heart's ice may never melt, so thou shalt be great and