“Thy companions have perished, and perchance it is better so for my purpose. For, after much consideration, I have decided that the best plan is to make at first a single experiment. Accordingly I will explain to our chiefs my reasons and intentions, and will offer them an example in my own person. “I will show them that it is possible to honour women without the madness of love, and that the children born of equals are superior. Everything shall be done with full deliberation, and an imposing ceremony shall be invented to show that I am not driven by the passion which our great ancestor dreaded.” He spoke rapidly, and Daphne listened to him without grasping his meaning at the moment. His words had entered her ears, but had not penetrated her heart. But in an instant every word became a flaming dart and pierced her to the quick, when he said— “Therefore, in two months from this day, with all imaginable pomp, I will make thee my queen.” * * * * * Daphne sprang up in the greatest excitement, and quivering with rage and indignation. “Thou stony image,” she cried, “know that I have not yet learned—no, nor ever will learn—to obey thee, unnatural one, inhuman! I would rather wed the lowest slave in Athens than thee. Has thy hideous descent left in thee no trace of manly feeling, and no knowledge of the heart of a woman? I would rather see the whole world desolate than mingle my blood with thine!” Thoth listened to her with undisguised astonishment, and replied to her quite calmly— “But what more couldst thou desire? Thou shalt be treated by every one, from myself downwards, with the most obsequious honour. Thou shalt be queen of the world, and the founder of the greatest race the earth has ever borne. Surely thou hast misunderstood my meaning. Say in what I have failed.” Daphne was somewhat soothed by the calmness of the reply, but her pride was still wounded. She resented the coldness of Thoth’s reasoning, and she replied with passion— “What more would I have? I would have one thing only, the first and the last—love—human love.” “And what,” said Thoth, with an appearance of intellectual interest, “is love? What more than I have promised?” The innocence of the answer of this wisest of men disarmed Daphne. “Thy honour and respect could no more kindle a spark of love than all the power of the ocean could kindle a little fire. Read again, if thou hast the record, the story of thy ancestor, and know that I must be loved as blindly as he loved the woman who, thou sayest, afterwards betrayed him.” She glided up to Thoth and took his hand. It was cool and steady. She looked up in his face, but his features were unmoved and his eyes passionless. “Shall I tell thee,” she whispered, “how thou canst tell if thou really lovest with all thy heart? I have never loved, and yet I know.”