to! The war cannot
last for ever, and if Mena returns the reconciliation of to-day will turn
to all the more bitter enmity. I see only one remedy. Follow my advice,
and let me find you a wife worthy of you."

"Not now!" exclaimed Paaker impatiently. "In a few days I must go again
into the enemy's country, and do not wish to leave my wife, like Mena, to
lead the life of a widow during my existence. Why urge it? my brother's
wife and children are with you--that might satisfy you."

"The Gods know how I love them," answered Setchem; "but your brother
Horns is the younger, and you the elder, to whom the inheritance belongs.
Your little niece is a delightful plaything, but in your son I should see
at once the future stay of our race, the future head of the family;
brought up to my mind and your father's; for all is sacred to me that my
dead husband wished. He rejoiced in your early betrothal to Nefert, and
hoped that a son of his eldest son should continue the race of Assa."

"It shall be by no fault of mine that any wish of his remains
unfulfilled. The stars are high, mother; sleep well, and if to-morrow you
visit Nefert and your sister, say to them that the doors of my house are
open to them. But stay! Katuti's steward has offered to sell a herd of
cattle to ours, although the stock on Mena's land can be but small. What
does this mean?"

"You know my sister," replied Setchem. "She manages Mena's possessions,
has many requirements, tries to vie with the greatest in splendor, sees
the governor often in her house, her son is no doubt extravagant--and so
the most necessary things may often be wanting."

Paaker shrugged his shoulders, once more embraced his mother and left
her.

Soon after, he was standing in the spacious room in which he was
accustomed to sit and to sleep when he was in Thebes. The walls of this
room were whitewashed and decorated with pious glyphic writing, which
framed in the door and the windows opening into the garden.

In the middle of the farther wall was a couch in the form of a lion. The
upper end of it imitated a lion's head, and the foot, its curling tail; a
finely dressed lion's skin was spread over the bell, and a headrest of
ebony, decorated with pious texts, stood on a high foot-step, ready for
the sleeper.

Above the bed various costly weapons and whips were elegantly displayed,
and below them the seven arrows over which Setchem had read the words
"Death to Mena." They were written acr