Page:Thotharomance00nichgoog.djvu/140

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A WEARY INTERVAL.
135

Daphne put down the child, and sat down herself, burying her head in her hand, and tried to think of a message which might move Thoth. Shame and pride, not unmixed with dread, made the task difficult, and the pigmy began to grow restless.

"Shall I ask Thoth to come?—once before I took such a message for thee."

At last, urged by her affectionate counsellor. Daphne wrote on a tablet these words: "Daphne still believes in the promise which Thoth made on leaving Athens, and prays in all humility that she may be restored to some Grecian city. She is not equal to the high position in which Thoth would have placed her. She is only a woman with the common feelings of nature, and no superior being. But oaths are binding even on the gods."

She sent the pigmy before her to the palace, for she was too anxious to accompany her.