He is dead, Isis! And I have never seen him--Take thou my tears and my prayer, bid this perpetual night, wherein I scarce can breathe, to cease--And if thou wilt not, deliver me to death--She-who-loves-the-silence, and after the judgment I may go to Amenti, and find my well-beloved child--find him, and there at last behold his face. Isis, I give thee all these flowers. [_She rises_] Come, Yaouma. [_As she is about to go, she stops, suddenly radiant_] Stay--I hear--yes! Go, bring the ewer and the lustral water. It is the master--He is here. _Yaouma goes out, but returns quickly. Enter Rheou._ MIERIS. Be welcome unto your house, master! _Yaouma pours water over the hands of Rheou and gives him a towel._ RHEOU. Gladly I greet you once more in your house, mistress! [_Pakh appears, returning to look for his hod_] [_To Pakh_] Well! potter, do you not go to meet your son? PAKH. I would fain go, master, but I looked upon the Nile a while ago; there is nothing in sight. RHEOU. The galley came last night at dusk, and, by order of the priests, was kept at the bend of the river till now. Go! PAKH. I thank you, master. _He goes out._ RHEOU. Is all made ready for the solemn prayer to Isis? The Sun is nearing the horizon. MIERIS. Yaouma, go and warn them all. YAOUMA [_kneeling in supplication_] Mistress-- MIERIS [_laying her hand on Yaouma's head_] What is it? YAOUMA. The galley. MIERIS. Well?--Ah, yes! you were betrothed to the potter's son--But to-day you must not go forth. Who shall say you are not she whom the God Ammon will choose? YAOUMA. The God Ammon knows not me. MIERIS. Did he choose you, he must know you. YAOUMA. Me! Me! A poor handmaiden--Is it then possible--truly? MIERIS. Truly--Yaouma, go. YAOUMA [_to herself as she goes_] The God Ammon--the God of Gods-- MIERIS. Rheou, what ails you? RHEOU [_angered_] It was a fresh insult that awaited me-- MIERIS. Insult? RHEOU. When I came into the audience chamber I prostrated myself before the Pharaoh. "What would you?" he cried in that hard voice of his. You know 'tis the custom to make no reply, that one may seem half dead with fear before his majesty-- MIERIS. Did you not so? RHEOU. I did, but he-- MIERIS. Have a care! Is no one there who might overhear you? RHEOU. No one--but he, in place of ordering them to raise me up, in place of bidding me speak--Oh, the dog of an Ethiopian!--he feigned not to see me--for a long while, a long, long while--At length, when he remembered I was there, anger was choking me; he saw it; he declared an evil spirit was in me, and having ridiculed me with his pity, he bade me then withdraw. He forgets that if I wished-- MIERIS. Be still! Be still! Know you not that there, beside you, are the Gods who hear you! RHEOU [_derisively_] Oh! the Gods! MIERIS. What mean you?