queer look which I could not fathom.

But whatever was in her mind, she had no plan to bawl about it
then before the people collected in the square. She said to me,
"Come," and, turning to the doorway, cried for entrance, giving the
secret word appointed for the day. The ponderous stone blocks,
which barred the porch, swung back on their hinges, and with
stately tread she passed out of the hot sunshine into the cool
gloom beyond, with the fan-girl following decorously at her heels.
With a heaviness beginning to grow at my heart, I too went inside
the pyramid, and the stone doors, with a sullen thud, closed behind
us.

We did not go far just then. Phorenice halted in the hall of
waiting. How well I remembered the place, with the pictures of
kings on its red walls, and the burning fountain of earth-breath
which blazed from a jet of bronze in the middle of the flooring and
gave it light. The old King that was gone had come this far of his
complaisance when he bade me farewell as I set out twenty years
before for my vice-royalty in Yucatan. But the air of the hall was
different to what it had been in those old days. Then it was pure
and sweet. Now it was heavy with some scent, and I found it
languid and oppressive.

"My minister," said the Empress, "I acquit you of intentional
insult; but I think the colonial air has made you a very simple
man. Such an obeisance as you showed to that mountain not a minute
since has not been made since I was sent to reign over this
kingdom."