she! Rameses must
fall, and with him Mena, the boy who degraded my body and poisoned my
soul!"

During this speech the old woman had stood in silence opposite the dwarf.
Now she sat down on her rough wooden seat, and said, while she proceeded
to pluck a lapwing:

"Now I understand you; you wish to be revenged. You hope to rise high,
and I am to whet your knife, and hold the ladder for you. Poor little
man! there, sit down-drink a gulp of milk to cool you, and listen to my
advice. Katuti wants a great deal of money to escape dishonor. She need
only pick it up--it lies at her door." The dwarf looked at the witch in
astonishment.

"The Mohar Paaker is her sister Setchem's son. Is he not?"

"As you say."

"Katuti's daughter Nefert is the wife of your master Mena, and another
would like to tempt the neglected little hen into his yard."

"You mean Paaker, to whom Nefert was promised before she went after
Mena."

"Paaker was with me the day before yesterday."

"With you?"

"Yes, with me, with old Hekt--to buy a love philter. I gave him one, and
as I was curious I went after him, saw him give the water to the little
lady, and found out her name."

"And Nefert drank the magic drink?" asked the dwarf horrified. "Vinegar
and turnip juice," laughed the old witch. "A lord who comes to me to win
a wife is ripe for any thing. Let Nefert ask Paaker for the money, and
the young scapegrace's debts are paid."

"Katuti is proud, and repulsed me severely when I proposed this."

"Then she must sue to Paaker herself for the money. Go back to him, make
him hope that Nefert is inclined to him, tell him what distresses the
ladies, and if he refuses, but only if he refuses, let him see that you
know something of the little dose."

The dwarf looked meditatively on the ground, and then said, looking
admiringly at the old woman: "That is the right thing."

"You will find out the lie without my telling you," mumbled the witch;
"your business is not perhaps such a bad one as it seemed to me at first.
Katuti may thank the ne'er-do-well who staked his father's corpse. You
don't understand me? Well, if you are really the sharpest of them all
over there, what must the others be?"

"You mean that people will speak well of my mistress for sacrificing so
large a sum for the sake--?"

"Whose sake? why speak well of her?" cried the old woman impatiently.
"Here we deal with other things, with actual facts. There stands
Paaker--there the w