VI: Solomon or Sheba? 



"Neither was there any such spice as the 

 Queen of Sheba gave King Solomon." 



THERE was never a question of regality — 

 scarcely of identity. It was Solomon — or 

 Sheba from the first. How else explain the glory 

 arrayed in which our prisoner came to exile save 

 as his arrogance — or hers? For no sooner had 

 we pried apart the box that formed a rude in- 

 carceration than there came a flash of the imperial 

 scarlet from breast, from crested head-dress, and 

 from flaunting train. Surely, too, the wisdom in 

 the wrinkled cheeks and shrewd, cold eyes was 

 either hers who came to put hard questions, — or 



[113] 



