(_Gravely._) A choice--a decision--made to-night is made for ever. _Nefertiti_ (_Low._) I know. _Menophis_ Little Child, it is for me a crisis, and I must choose between great issues. My life, too, is rising. I must decide in what direction it shall flow. _Nefertiti_ You mean … with whom? _Menophis_ _For_ whom. [_He turns his head a moment towards the distant Temple of Aton, just visible still in the last sunset light. Its whiteness gleams. She notices the gesture._ _Nefertiti_ How cold it has grown. Menophis.… I feel the desert-wind’s fingers at my heart. It is the North wind from the sea. You, too, seem distant suddenly. (_Lowering voice._) I fear for you. Why is it? I fear something … for myself … as well---- _Menophis_ There is no fear this sacred night. There is courage only. Life increases everywhere. The river rises. The Tear of Isis falls into the Nile and---- _Nefertiti_ Hark! (_She listens._) There are awful things about in Egypt when---- _Menophis_ She is alive, that’s all. _Nefertiti_ Listen! _Menophis_ It is the lapping waves. It is the wind among the palms. _Nefertiti_ (_Whispering._) The waters! That cold desert wind! It blows between us--between you and me. There is a shadow! (_Shudders closer to him._) Surely great Kephren bowed this way! _Menophis_ The stars shine over us. They cast no shadow. The pyramid stands fast. _Nefertiti_ Yet something passed between us, for I felt it. (_Grips him._) You are all _mine_? _Menophis_ (_Holds her close._) There is no room. A shadow cannot separate us. Anything _real_ would bind us closer only. _Nefertiti_ Then why are you so solemn, your eyes so far away, your voice so distant? This crisis that you speak of--it could not take you from _me_? _Menophis_ Nothing can take you from me, or me from you--for long. The chain of our past and future lives is bound together beyond all breaking. _Nefertiti_ What is it, then, that frightens me? _Menophis_ (_With grave tenderness._) Ah, Nefertiti, Little Child, to-night I stand--_we_ stand together--at the very gates of life. The choice is difficult, for it involves you too. Since first, three years ago, I saw you flitting, like a swallow, down the river bank at Memphis--since those enchanted days I have had no other human love but you---- _Nefertiti_ (_Startled._) No other _human_ love! _Menophis_ (_Slowly._) There _is_ another love, my Nefertiti--a greater; not more enduring, perhaps, but nobler. For it demands the greater sacrifice. And, cold though it seem to your warm, passionate heart--_if_ it should call me---- _Nefertiti_ (_Catching him by the arm._) Greater! Yet would take you from me! But you _are_ mine! _Menophis_ Your beauty troubles me; my blood rebels. I cannot look at you and hear the call this sacred night may bring me. I must make a still place for my soul to listen. (_Slowly._) Oh, Nefertiti, you must leave me--for a little. _Nefertiti_