Page:Thotharomance00nichgoog.djvu/172

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GRECIAN GUILE.
167

She Spoke to him with a soft enticing voice, and looked up to him as to a superior.

"Daphne," replied Thoth, "I have already yielded to thee the utmost that my nature will permit. It is useless to ask more. For two thousand years my race have toiled incessantly to create a new world. They await their reward. If I raise them from their sleep, they will never consent to forego their plans. If I raise them not—but I tell thee that is impossible. Rise they must, now all is ready, as surely as rises the sun."

Love yielded in his eyes to fixed determination, and Daphne's heart sank within her.

"The task I have already agreed to," he continued, "is wellnigh hopeless. They will never admit women to an honourable place, unless they are assured beyond doubt that the choice lies between love and death. I must prove that my love for thee, in spite of genera-