"My father found it on her when she died," said Uarda. "She came to Egypt as a prisoner of war, and was as white as I am, but dumb, so she could not tell us the name of her home."
"She belonged to some great house among the foreigners, and the children inherit from the mother," cried the prince joyfully. "You are a princess, Uarda! Oh! how glad I am, and how much I love you!"
The girl smiled and said, "Now you will not be afraid to touch the daughter of the unclean."
"You are cruel," replied the prince. "Shall I tell you what I determined on yesterday,--what would not let me sleep last night,--and for what I came here today?"
"Well?"
Rameri took a most beautiful white rose out of his robe and said: "It is very childish, but I thought how it would be if I might put this flower with my own hands into your shining hair. May I?"
"It is a splendid rose! I never saw such a fine one."
"It is for my haughty princess. Do pray let me dress your hair! It is like silk from Tyre, like a swan's breast, like golden star-beams--there, it is fixed safely! Nay, leave it so. If the seven Hathors could see you, they would be jealous, for you are fairer than all of them."
"How you flatter!" said Uarda, shyly blushing, and looking into his sparkling eyes.
"Uarda," said the prince, pressing her hand to his heart. "I have now but one wish. Feel how my heart hammers and beats. I believe it will never rest again till you--yes, Uarda--till you let me give you one, only one, kiss."
The girl drew back.
"Now," she said seriously. "Now I see what you want. Old Hekt knows men, and she warned me."
"Who is Hekt, and what can she know of me?"
"She told me that the time would come when a man would try to make friends with me. He would look into my eyes, and if mine met his, then he would ask to kiss me. But I must refuse him, because if I liked him to kiss me he would seize my soul, and take it from me, and I must wander, like the restless ghosts, which the abyss rejects, and the storm whirls before it, and the sea will not cover, and the sky will not receive, soulless to the end of my days. Go away--for I cannot refuse you the kiss, and yet I would not wander restless, and without a soul!"