"But how can I, grandmother? I have sworn to be faithful to him for
ever."

"Oh, children! Ye play with eternity as if it were but a passing moment!
I could blame thee for thus plighting thy troth, but I rejoice that thou
regardest the oath as binding. I detest the blasphemous proverb: 'Zeus
pays no heed to lovers' oaths.' Why should an oath touching the best and
holiest feelings of humanity be regarded by the Deity, as inferior in
importance to asseverations respecting the trifling questions of mine and
thine? Keep thy promise then,--hold fast thy love, but prepare to
renounce thy lover."

"Never, grandmother! could I ever have loved Bartja, if I had not trusted
him? Just because he is a Persian and holds truth to be the highest
virtue, I may venture to hope that he will remember his oath, and,
notwithstanding those evil customs of the Asiatics, will take and keep me
as his only wife."

"But if he should forget, thy youth will be passed in mourning, and with
an embittered heart . . ."

"O, dear kind grandmother, pray do not speak of such dreadful things.
If you knew him as well as I do, you would rejoice with me, and would
tell me I was right to believe that the Nile may dry up and the Pyramids
crumble into ruins, before my Bartja can ever deceive me!"

The girl spoke these words with such a joyful, perfect confidence, and
her eyes, though filled with tears, were so brilliant with happiness and
warmth of feeling, that Rhodopis' face grew cheerful too.