At dinner, the Princess Ziska devoted herself almost entirely to the entertainment of Dr. Dean, and awakened his interest very keenly on the subject of the Great Pyramid.

“It has never really been explored,” she said.  “The excavators who imagine they have fathomed its secrets are completely in error.  The upper chambers are mere deceits to the investigator; they were built and planned purposely to mislead, and the secrets they hide have never even been guessed at, much less discovered.”

“Are you sure of that?” inquired the Doctor, eagerly.  “If so, would you not give your information. ...”

“I neither give my information nor sell it,” interrupted the Princess, smiling coldly.  “I am only a woman—­and women are supposed to know nothing.  With the rest of my sex, I am judged illogical and imaginative; you wise men would call my knowledge of history deficient, my facts not proven.  But, if you like, I will tell you the story of the construction of the Great Pyramid, and why it is unlikely that anyone will ever find the treasures that are buried within it.  You can receive the narrative with the usual incredulity common to men; I shall not attempt to argue the pros and cons with you, because I never argue.  Treat it as a fairy-tale—­no woman is ever supposed to know anything for a fact,—­she is too stupid.  Only men are wise!”

Her dark, disdainful glance flashed on Gervase and Denzil; anon she smiled bewitchingly, and added: 

“Is it not so?”

“Wisdom is nothing compared to beauty,” said Gervase.  “A beautiful woman can turn the wisest man into a fool.”

The Princess laughed lightly.

“Yes, and a moment afterwards he regrets his folly,” she said.  “He clamors for the beautiful woman as a child might cry for the moon, and when he at last possesses her, he tires.  Satisfied with having compassed her degradation, he exclaims:  ’What shall I do with this beauty, which, because it is mine, now palls upon me?  Let me kill it and forget it; I am aweary of love, and the world is full of women!’ That is the way of your sex, Monsieur Gervase; it is a brutal way, but it is the one most of you follow.”

“There is such a thing as love!” said Denzil, looking up quickly, a pained flush on his handsome face.

“In the hearts of women, yes!” said Ziska, her voice growing tremulous with strange and sudden passion.  “Women love—­ah!—­with what force and tenderness and utter abandonment of self!  But their love is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred utterly wasted; it is a largesse flung to the ungrateful, a jewel tossed in the mire!  If there were not some compensation in the next life for the ruin wrought on loving women, the Eternal God himself would be a mockery and a jest.”