tively loosening their bright-colored, heavy ceremonial robes as the banquet progressed.
Auletes brooded, amidst the festival.
***
Above, in her chamber overlooking the sea, his Idumean wife, beautiful as a goddess, lay with her new-born child; a daughter: his fourth daughter. Berenice, his sister, had borne him three daughters and had died. It was not unfitting for her to die. He had hoped now, for a son, for an heir beyond question to the kingdom he had so struggled to hold. The oracles had, in fact promised him a child who should rule Egypt; this very priest, Nargases, had assured him of it. So he had expected a son; but the oracles had deceived men since time began. He was bitterly disappointed. A son and heir held aloft to meet the plaudits of a nation . . .
