shouldst chance to meet the singing-maiden of my household,
Niphrata, bid her make haste homeward,--she hath been absent since
the break of morn,--too long for my contentment. Maybe I did
unwisely to give the child her freedom,--as slave she would not
have presumed to gad abroad thus wantonly, without her lord's
permission. Say, if thou seest her, that I am wrathful,--the
thought of mine anger will be as a swift wing to waft her hither
like a trembling dove,--afraid, all penitent, and eager for my
pardon! Remember! ... be sure thou tell her of my deep
displeasure!"

Zibya bowed profoundly, his outspread hands almost touching the
floor in the servility of his obeisance, and backed out of the
room as humbly as though he were leaving the presence of royalty.
When he had gone, Theos looked up from the news-scroll he was
perusing:

"Is it not strange Niphrata should have left thee thus, Sah-
luma?".. he said with a touch of anxiety in his tone ... "Maybe"..
and he hesitated, conscious of a strange, unbidden remorse that
suddenly and without any apparent reason overwhelmed his
conscience.. "Maybe she was not happy?"...

"Not happy!" ejaculated Sah-luma amazedly, "Not happy with ME? ...
not happy in MY house,--protected by MY patronage? Where then, if
not here, could she find happiness?"

And his beautiful flashing eyes betokened his entire and naive
astonishment at the mere supposition. Theos smiled involuntarily..
how, charming, after all was Sah-luma's sublime egotism!--how