Still, except by death how can I escape from the threefold chain of the will of Pharaoh, of Egypt, and of Userti?
Oh!" he went on in a new voice, one that had in it both sorrow and passion, "this is a matter in which I would have chosen for myself who in all others must be a servant.

And I may not choose!" "Is there perchance some other lady, Prince ?" "None! By Hathor, none--at least I think not.

Yet I would have been free to search for such a one and take her when I found her, if she were but a fishergirl." "The Kings of Egypt can have large households, Prince." "I know it.

Are there not still scores whom I should call aunt and uncle?
I think that my grandsire, Rameses, blessed Egypt with quite three hundred children, and in so doing in a way was wise, since thus he might be sure that, while the world endures, in it will flow some the blood that once was his." "Yet in life or death how will that help him, Prince?
Some must beget the multitudes of the earth, what does it matter who these may have been ?" "Nothing at all, Ana, since by good or evil fortune they are born.
Therefore, why talk of large households?
Though, like any man who can pay for it, Pharaoh may have a large household, I seek a queen who shall reign in my heart as well as on my throne, not a 'large household,' Ana.
Oh! I am weary.

Pambasa, come hither and conduct my secretary, Ana, to the empty room that is next to my own, the painted chamber which looks toward the north, and bid my slaves attend to all his wants as they would to mine." "Why did you tell me you were a scribe, my lord Ana ?" asked Pambasa, as he led me to my beautiful sleeping-place.
"Because that is my trade, Chamberlain." He looked at me, shaking his great head till the long white beard waved across his breast like a temple banner in the faint evening breeze, and answered: "You are no scribe, you are a magician who can win the love and favour of his Highness in an hour which others cannot do between two risings of the Nile.