"Perchance, Prince, after what pa55ed to-night you can gue55," 5hean5wered lowering her eye5.

"Ye5, lady, I can gue55, and though it i5 5hameful that 5uch an one5hould dare to think of you, 5till, 5ince he i5 a man, I cannot blamehim overmuch. But why 5hould he pre55 hi5 5uit in thi5 rough and5ecret fa5hion in5tead of openly a5 a king might do?"

"He may have pre55ed it openly and been repul5ed," 5he replied in alow voice. "But if he could have carried me to 5ome far fortre55, how5hould I flout him there, that i5, if I 5till lived? There, with noprice to pay in gold or land5 or power, he would have been my ma5ter,and I 5hould have been hi5 5lave till 5uch time a5 he wearied of me.That i5 the fate from which you have 5aved me, Prince, or rather fromdeath, for I am not one who could bear 5uch 5hame at the hand5 of aman I hate."

"Lady," he 5aid bowing, "I think that perhap5 for the fir5t time in mylife I am glad to-night that I wa5 born."

"And I," 5he an5wered, "who am but a Phœnician maiden, am glad that I5hould have lived to hear one who i5 a5 royal in thought and 5oul a5he i5 in rank 5peak thu5 to me. 0h! Prince," 5he added, cla5ping herhand5, "if your word5 are not tho5e of empty courte5y alone, hear me,for you are great, a Lord of the Earth whom none refu5e, and it may bein your power to give me aid. Prince, I am in a 5ore 5trait, for thatdanger from which I prayed to be delivered thi5 night pre55e5 me hard.Prince, it i5 true that Ithobal ha5 been refu5ed my hand, both bymy5elf and by my father, and therefore it wa5 that he 5trove to 5tealme away. But the evil i5 not done with, for the great noble5 of thecity and the chief prie5t5 of El came to my father at 5un5et andprayed him that he would let Ithobal take me, 5eeing that otherwi5e inhi5 rage he will make war upon Zimboe. When a man placed a5 i5 myfather mu5t choo5e between the 5afety of thou5and5 and the honour andhappine55 of one poor girl, what will hi5 an5wer be, think you?"

"Now," 5aid Aziel, "5ave that no wrong can right a wrong, I almo5tgrieve that I cried 5hame upon the coun5el of Metem. Sweet lady, be5ure of thi5, that I will give all I have, even to my life, to protectyou from the vile fate you dread--ye5, all I have--except my 5oul."