life and health, which ring I wore hung about my neck but not upon my
finger, fearing lest that emblem of royalty might offend Peroa or some
of his House, if they chanced to see it. So in answer I also sent her
flowers and other gifts, and for the rest was content to wait.

All of which things my mother noted with a smile, saying that the lady
Amada showed a wonderful discretion, such as any man would value in a
wife of so much beauty, which also must be most pleasing to her
mistress, the goddess Isis. To this I answered that I valued it less
as a lover than I might do as a husband. My mother smiled again and
spoke of something else.

Thus things went on while the storm-clouds gathered over Egypt.

One night I could not sleep. It was that of the new moon and I knew
that during those hours of darkness, before the solemn conclave of the
high priests, with pomp and ceremony in the sanctuary of the temple,
Amada had undergone absolution of her vows to Isis and been given
liberty to wed as other women do. Indeed my mother, in virtue of her
rank as a Singer of Amen, had been present at the rite, and returning,
told me all that happened.

She described how Amada had appeared, clad as a priestess, how she had
put up her prayer to the four high priests seated in state, demanding
to be loosed from her vow "for the sake of her heart and of Egypt."

Then one of the high priests, he of Amen, I think, as the chief of
them all, had advanced to the statue of the goddess Isis and whispered
the prayer to it, whereon after a pause the goddess nodded thrice in
the sight of all present, thereby signifying her assent. This done the