If, on the other hand, her wish could be gratified, she might, (though this is hardly probable) live some years yet, but if it remain but a short time longer unfulfilled, it will certainly wear her to death.
"Have you any idea for whom she longs so eagerly?
Our Tachot has allowed herself to be fascinated by the beautiful Bartja, the brother of your future husband.

I do not mean to say by this that he has employed magic, as the priest Ameneman believes, to gain her love; for a youth might be far less handsome and agreeable than Bartja, and yet take the heart of an innocent girl, still half a child.

But her passionate feeling is so strong, and the change in her whole being so great, that sometimes I too am tempted to believe in the use of supernatural influence.

A short time before you left I noticed that Tachot was fond of Bartja.

Her distress at first we thought could only be for you, but when she sank into that dreamy state, Ibykus, who was still at our court, said she must have been seized by some strong passion.
"Once when she was sitting dreaming at her wheel, I heard him singing softly Sappho's little love-song to her: "I cannot, my sweet mother, Throw shuttle any more; My heart is full of longing, My spirit troubled sore, All for a love of yesterday A boy not seen before." [Sappho ed.