She, too, smiled most sweetly as she surveyed the beautiful fair queen from beneath her long drooping lids, and examined her appearance with all possible minuteness.

She remembered her well enough, but so warm was the welcome she received, that she almost thought she had misjudged Atossa in calling her hard and cold.

She drew her guest to the cushions upon the carpets, and they sat down side by side.
"I have been talking about you already this morning, my princess," began Atossa, speaking at once in familiar terms, as though she were conversing with an intimate friend.

Nehushta was very proud; she knew herself to be of a race as royal as Atossa, though now almost extinct; and in answering, she spoke in the same manner as the queen; so that the latter was inwardly amused at the self-confidence of the Hebrew princess.
"Indeed ?" said Nehushta, "there must be far more interesting things than I in Shushan.

I would have talked of you had I found any one to talk with." The queen laughed a little.
"As I was coming out this morning, I met an old friend of mine upon the balcony before the king's apartment,--Zoroaster, the handsome captain.
We fell into conversation, how handsome he has grown since I saw him last!" The queen watched Nehushta closely while affecting the greatest unconcern, and she thought the shadows about the princess's eyes turned a shade darker at the mention of the brilliant warrior.