Part 15 (1/2)

That night, when in fear and tre we attended the royal supper table, we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache That headache lasted for three whole days; but on the fourth she was present at supper as usual, and with the ave Sir Henry her hand to lead her to the table No allusion was , with a char air of innocence, that when she came to see us at our studies the other day she had been seized with a giddiness from which she had only now recovered

She supposed, she added with a touch of the huht of people working so hard which had affected her

In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did not look quite herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of those quick glances of hers at hih him like a knife, and the subject dropped entirely

Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha condescended to put us through an examination to see e had learnt, and to express herself well satisfied with the results Indeed, she proceeded to give us, especially Sir Henry, a lesson on her own account, and very interesting we found it

And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, and laughed, Sorais would sit there in her carven ivory chair, and look at us and read us all like a book, only fro that quick ohtning on a dark cloud than anything else And as near to her as he dared would sit Good, worshi+pping through his eyeglass, for he really was getting seriously devoted to this so personally, I felt terribly afraid I watched her keenly, and soon I found out that for all her apparent impassibility she was at heart bitterly jealous of Nyleptha Another thing I found out, and the discovery filleddevoted to Sir Henry Curtis Of course I could not be sure; it is not easy to read so cold and haughty a wos, and, as elephant hunters know, dried grass shohich way the wind has set

And so another three months passed over us, by which time we had all attained to a very considerable e, which is an easy one to learn And as the tireat favourites with the people, and even with the courtiers, gaining an enormous reputation for cleverness, because, as I think I have said, Sir Henry was able to show thelass, which was a national want, and also, by the help of a twenty-year almanac that we had with us, to predict various heavenly combinations which were quite unsuspected by the native astrono the principle of the stea of the learned s of the same sort we did And so it came about that the people o out of the country (which indeed was an apparent impossibility even if we had wished it), and ere advanced to great honour and uards of the sister Queens while perned to us in the palace, and our opinion was asked upon questions of national policy

But blue as the sky see one, on the horizon We had indeed heard no more of those confounded hippopotami, but it is not on that account to be supposed that our sacrilege was forgotten, or the enon appeased On the contrary, it was burning the more fiercely because it was necessarily suppressed, and what had perhaps begun in bigotry was ending in downright direct hatred born of jealousy Hitherto, the priests had been the wise men of the land, and were on this account, as well as from superstitious causes, looked on with peculiar veneration

But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdos, dealt a serious blow to this state of affairs, and, a the priestly prestige A still worse affront to thearded, and the trust that was reposed in us All these things tended to reat sacerdotal clan, the doer to us was the rising envy of soonism to us had at best been but thinly veiled, and which now threatened to break out into open flame Nasta had for soe, and e appeared on the scene I fancy, froh there were still many obstacles in his path, success was by no ed; the coy Nyleptha suess the cause Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention to Sorais, only to find that he ht as well try to woo a mountain side With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door was closed on hiht himself of the thirty thousand wild swordsh the northern ates of Milosis with our heads

But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attempt and to demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after the for of the laws that had been proclai fact Nyleptha heard with si of the voice herself inforreat cere

Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainly showed his agitation

'And what ansill the Queen be pleased to give to the great Lord?'

asked I, in a jesting manner

'Answer, Macumazahn' (for we had elected to pass by our Zulu na of her ivory shoulder 'Nay, I know not; what is a poor woman to do, when the wooer has thirty thousand swords ith to urge his love?' And frolanced at Curtis

Just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room

'Quatermain, a word, quick,' said Sir Henry to me 'Listen I have never spoken about it, but surely you have guessed: I love Nyleptha What am I to do?'

Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question into consideration, and was therefore able to give such answer as seeht,' I said 'Now is your tiet near to her, and whisper to her to reat hall I will keep watch for you there Now or never, Curtis'

We passed on into the other roo, her hands before her, and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face A little way off was Sorais talking to Good in her slow measured tones

The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that, according to their habit, the Queens would retire As yet, Sir Henry had had no chance of saying a word in private: indeed, thoughmuch of the royal sisters, it was by no means easy to see them alone I racked my brains, and at last an idea ca low before Sorais, 'to sing to her servants? Our hearts are heavy this night; sing to us, oh Lady of the Night' (Sorais' favourite nas, Macuhten the heavy heart, yet will I sing if it pleases thee,' she answered; and she rose and went a few paces to a table whereon lay an instru chords

Then suddenly, like the notes of so so wildly sweet, and yet with so eerie and sad a refrain, that it olden notes, that seeain and travel on, laden with all the sorrow of the world and all the despair of the lost It was a , but I had not tiot the words of it afterwards, and here is a translation of its burden, so far as it ad translated at all