"
The tears brimmed over her lashes this time.
"Thou dost slander me!" she exclaimed passionately.
"Then I do not understand thee, Masanath," he asserted.
"Of a surety," she declared, withdrawing a hand that she might dry the
evidences of her indignation from her cheeks. "Take the example home to
thyself! Thou hast been loved in thy time, and if ever there was
awakened any feeling in thy heart in response it was repugnance. What if
one of these women had it in her power to take thee against thy will? By
this time thou hadst been dead of thy frantic hate of her, if self-murder
had not been done!"
"Even so," he answered with a short laugh; "but I will not set thee free,
Masanath, if thou didst convict me a monster in mine own eyes. If thou
art good thou wilt love me or do thy duty by me. If thou art base, I
have wedded mine own deserts."
He took the hand she had withdrawn and prepared to go on, but she
interposed.
"Not yet have I asked my boon."
"I am no longer in debt to thy father."
"I ask no favor for my father at thy hands. Rather am I come to crave a
boon for myself."
"Speak."
"My father asked an Israelite maiden at the hands of the Pharaoh a year
agone, and she was beloved by my friend and thine.
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