Thoth: A Romance/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV.
GREEK AND BARBARIAN.
Hour followed hour with unendurable slowness, until the appointed day arrived for Daphne to declare her decision. With sunrise Thoth requested permission for the interview; but Daphne replied that she would meet him at noon in the garden.
In the absence of other counsellors, she had determined to take advice from the full blaze of the sun, and to listen to the voice of nature in the whispering trees and the peaceful murmuring of the waters.
At length Thoth appeared at the time and place agreed upon. A glance at his face showed that his love had grown with the lapse of time, and Daphne felt a thrill of delight.
He saw the look of pleasure in her face, and with a cry rushed to embrace her; but by a gesture she stopped his advance, and said to him with forced calmness—
"Thou still lovest me as much as before?"
"Thou canst not doubt it," he replied; and she read the truth in the trembling of his voice and the passion of his face.
"Wilt thou consent to my conditions—the firm resolve of my vigils?"
"I consent before I hear them," he rejoined. "Do with me as thou wilt."
"They are hard," she said; "but after what I have witnessed I cannot take less. First of all, every mystery of thy race and of thy power must be disclosed."
"I consent," he said.
"All thy people, including the ruling race, must accept me as their queen."
"I will compel them," he murmured.
"When I am thoroughly satisfied on these points, thou must return with me to Greece."
"I will go with thee to the ends of the earth," he murmured.
"And if," she said, "when I return to my country, this city of thine shall appear, as is possible, too dreadful a place in which to dwell, I shall be free to remain?"
"Thou wilt never wish to do so," he said, with resolution.
"And if, when I hear again the familiar voices of my native land, and see the joyous faces of the people, thou shalt seem to me an alien, and unlovable, thou wilt leave me for ever?"
"But this cannot be," he rejoined.
"I know not," she said; "but if it should so chance, then thou wilt consent?"
"I consent even to this," he said; "but it can never be."
Tears stood in his eyes; and Daphne said quickly—
"But if, as my heart tells me is more probable, I yield to thy love, and thy will becomes my will, then thou wilt, first of all, wed me according to the custom of the Greeks?"
"That will I do most joyfully," he said. "I will prepare to return with thee as speedily as possible." And again he wished to embrace her.
"Nay," she said. "Thou shalt not touch my finger again until we return to Greece; and first of all, there is much that I must learn of thee and thy people."
"Ask, and I will answer," he said.
"But," she replied, "I know not what to ask. Teach me from the beginning. Thy city is planted in the midst of an impenetrable desert, and thy people seem few in number, and yet thou sayest thou wilt make me queen of the world. How can this be?"
"Power," he replied, "does not lie in numbers. We have weapons unknown to the rest of the world. The secret of our strength I will explain."
"Then," she continued, "I would fain know by what spell all thy fellows are kept in such perfect obedience. And strange words of thine run in mine ears,—of death and sleep, of a king above thee in power, and of vice-regents whom thou canst consult. Even in this glaring sun the air seems laden with foreboding. If thou wouldst gain my love and confidence, clear away all these mysteries; for they seem to me in many respects contrary to nature, and certain in the end to bring down the wrath of the immortal gods."