"What telleth he?" Sozana asked, and Semiramis answered with a joyous smile:
"He telleth of my lake which sparkleth like unto a jewel among the hills; of my fishes that swim therein, and of Dagon's little temple on the shore. I see the sheep that browse by day, till the sun is low behind the desert's rim, and one by one the shepherds' fires leap, twinkling, through the dusk. Ah, Sozana, mine, 'tis like unto the joy of Prince Memetis when he dreameth by night of his silver Nile and the mighty pyramids."
Sozana, turning, cast a look of tenderness on him who smiled into her eyes, and suffered her hand to linger when the Egyptian raised it to his lips.
"Say on," begged Semiramis of the merchant once again, "for I tell you, friend, when first I heard your hunter's call in the streets below, my heart was set a-leaping, even as Habal loosed his tongue in honest joy. Poor Habal! I have shut him in my chamber, lest in his gladness he spring upon your breast and thereby undeceive this eunuch Kishra, who even now regardeth you with a doubting eye. Be, therefore, brief. What more of my troubled lord?"
"Mistress," replied the faithful Indian, "he urgeth that we steal away from Nineveh by craft and journey to the land of Prince Boabdul, whither the master followeth when my messenger shall bear him word that all is well."
"So be it," said Semiramis, puckering her brows. "Kishra, bear a draught of wine to this aged man who is athirst and would now depart."
The chief of eunuchs departed on her errand, and in his absence Semiramis spoke quickly, albeit she smiled the while:
"Go, Huzim, and sell your wares through Nineveh by day, yet wait by night on the further river-bank where the water lilies grow. If seven nights pass by and I come not to the place, then walk once more by the garden wall, and Sozana shall summon you again. Buy baubles of Egypt, Huzim, for her lover is of that land, and trifles will seem of value in her sight; yet if Ishtar smileth I will win to the river-bank and journey to Arabia as my lord hath willed."
When Kishra returned with a cup of wine, the Princess listened eagerly to the merchant's tale of a ring he had seen and would seek to find. It was fashioned, he said, of yellow metal in the form of two serpents intertwined. It was set with moon-stones, jewels sacred to the goddess Isis who shed her light on the land of Pharaohs far beyond the sea; and Sozana laughed in happiness, urging that he buy this ring though it brought the price of an hundred slaves. The merchant promised as he drank his wine, then, once more bowing till his forehead touched the earth, he departed whence he came. In the streets below he smiled as he hawked his wares, while those in the garden heard his voice uplifted ever and anon in the cry of a startled crane.