Three Novels of Ancient Egypt

How had her heart died after that? Was it sadness that had killed it? Or vanity, or glory? She listened to talk of love with a deaf ear and a closed heart. The most a man so passionately in love with her as Tahu could hope for was that she would offer him her cold body.

She surrendered to her memories for a long time, as if she had summoned them to bind her with the most wonderful days of her life and the happiest. Time passed without her knowing if it was hours or minutes, until at length she heard the sound of footsteps. Annoyed she turned round and saw the door open. Shayth entered out of breath and said, “My lady, he is following me. Here he is.”

She saw him enter, confidently, as if he were entering his own bedchamber. She was astonished, and overjoyed. “My lord,” she exclaimed.

Shayth withdrew and closed the door. The king cast a glance around the beautiful chamber and laughed, “Should I ask forgiveness for bursting in like this?”

She smiled happily. “The chamber and its mistress are yours, my lord.”

He laughed his charming laugh. It was a youthful wholesome laugh, bursting with life. He took hold of her elbow and led her over to the couch, and sitting her down, he took his seat next to her. “I feared that you might fall asleep before I came,” he said.

“Asleep. Sleep would never find his way into a night like this. The light of joy would make him think it daytime.”

His face turned serious. “How much more so if we should shine together.”

She had never felt such happiness before, her heart had never been so awake, so alive, and she had never known the pleasure of surrender as she knew it now before this remarkable human being. He was right. She was burning, but she did not say anything. She simply raised her eyes, overflowing with joy and brimming with love, and gazed at him. Then she spoke: “I never thought you would return this night.”

“Nor did I. But the meeting was heavy and tiresome, and I grew weary with concentrating. I felt troubled and restless. The man placed many decrees in front of me and I signed a few of them and listened to him with my mind distracted, until I could take no more and told him to put off the work until tomorrow. I did not think to return, I wanted to be alone that I might confer with myself. But once alone I found the solitude weighed down on me, and the night grew dreary and unbearable. Thereupon I scolded myself and said, ‘Why should I wait until tomorrow?’ It is my habit not to resist an emotion, so I did not hesitate, and here I am, with you.”

What a happy habit it was, and she was reaping its most delicious fruits. She felt by his side a wonderful joy as he trembled with life and passion. “Rhadopis, what a beautiful name that is. It falls upon my ears like music and means ‘love’ in my heart. This love is something wondrous. It can disarm a man whose nights are filled — with gorgeous women of every color and taste. It is truly remarkable. I — wonder how it — works. It seems to be a feeling of unease that torments my heart, at once a divine incantation recited on the loftiest plane of my soul, and yet a painful longing. It is you. Your stunning presence abides in every manifestation of the world and the soul. Look at this strong frame of mine, it feels a need for you as a drowning man feels the need for air to breathe.”

She shared his feelings and sensed his sincerity. He had spoken to describe one heart and had described two. Like him, she could hear the divine incantation, and beheld his image in the manifestations of the world and the soul, while her eyelids were heavy with dreams and ecstasy. At last their eyelashes touched and he asked her gently, “Why do you not speak, Rhadopis?”

She opened her beautiful eyes and looked at him with passion and longing. “What need have I of words, my lord? For so long, words flowed from my tongue and my heart was dead. But now, my heart is bursting with life and soaks up your words like the earth soaks up the warmth of the sun, and through it finds life.”

He smiled at her happily. “This love has plucked me from amidst a world replete with women.”

She returned his smile. “And it has plucked me from amidst a world overflowing with men.”

“I was stumbling about in my world, confused, and you were only an arm's length away from me. What a pity. I should have met you years ago.”

“We were both waiting for the falcon to bring us together.”

He held her hand tighter in his. “Yes, Rhadopis, the Fates were waiting for the falcon to appear on our horizon that they might set down on its page the most beautiful love story. I do not doubt that the falcon could not bear to put off our love any longer. We should not be apart after today. The most beautiful thing in the world is that we should be together.”

She sighed from the depths of her heart, “Yes, my lord, we should never be apart after this day. Here is my bosom for you, a verdant pasture for you to graze upon whenever you wish.”