CHAPTER IX.
THE DOOM OF PHARAOH On the morrow when the lady Asti came to dress the Queen for that day's ceremony, she asked her if Amen had given her the wisdom that she sought.
"Not so," answered the young Queen, "all he gave me was very bad dreams, and in every one of them was mixed up that waiting woman of my father, Merytra, of whom you spoke to me.

If I believed in omens I should say that she was about to bring some evil upon our House." "It may well be so, Queen," answered Asti, "and in that case I think that she is at the work.

At any rate, watching from the little window of my room, by the light of the moon I saw her return across the temple court at midnight.

Moreover, it seemed to me that she was carrying something beneath her robe." "Whence did she return ?" "From the city, I suppose.

She has Pharaoh's pass, and can go in and out when she will.