With him also were several captains to whom he talked of military affairs.
Seeing the two women, he bowed to them courteously, and asked them to forgive him for having kept them waiting for him.

Then he said: "What was it that you wished to show me, Ladies?
Oh! I remember, precious stones.

Well, I fear me that you have brought them to a bad market, seeing that although Napata is called the City of Gold, she needs all her wealth for her own purposes, and I draw from it only a general's pay, and a sum for the sustenance of my household, which is small.

Still, let me look at your wares, for if I do not buy myself, perhaps I may be able to find you a customer." Now when they saw the young man's noble face and bearing, and heard his simple words, the hearts of Asti and Tua, his mother and his love, beat so hard within their breasts that for a while they could scarcely speak.
Glad were they, indeed, that the veils they wore hid their troubled faces from his eyes, which, as in the morning, lingered on them curiously.
At length, controlling herself with an effort, Asti answered: "Perchance, Lord, the Great Lady your wife, or the ladies your companions, will buy if you do not." "Have I not already told you, Merchant," asked Rames angrily, "that I have no wife, and no companions that are not men ?" "You said so, Sir," she replied humbly, always speaking in her feigned voice, "yet forgive us if we believed you not, since in our journeyings my daughter and I have seen many princes, and know that such a thing is contrary to their nature.

Still we will show you our wares, for surely all the men in Napata are not unmarried." Then, without more ado, she drew out a box of scented cedar and, opening it, revealed a diadem of pearls worked into the shape of the royal _uraeus_, which they had fashioned thus at Tat, and also a few of their largest single gems.
"Beautiful, indeed," said Rames, looking at them, "though there is but one who has the right to wear this crown, the divine Queen of the Upper and the Lower Land," and he sighed.
"Nay, Lord," replied Asti, "for surely her husband might wear it also." "It would sit but ill on the fat head of Abi, from all I hear, Lady," he broke in, laughing bitterly.
"Or," went on Asti, taking no heed of his words, "a general who had conquered a great country could usurp it, and find none to reprove him, especially if he himself happened to be of the royal blood." Now Rames looked at her sharply.
"You speak strange words," he said, "but doubtless it is by chance.
Merchant, those pearls of yours are for richer men than I am, shut them in the box again, and let the lady, your daughter, sing some old song of Egypt, for such I long to hear." "So be it, Lord," answered Asti.