ake me rich. Then I will buy Pinem's grandchild, and take her for my
wife. I will build a house near the hall of justice, and give the
complainants and defendants private advice, like the hunch-back Sent, who
now drives through the streets in his own chariot."

"Hm--" said his mother, "that might have done very well, but perhaps it
is too late. When the child had fever she talked about the young priest
who was sent from the House of Seti by Ameni. He is a fine tall fellow,
and took a great interest in her; he is a gardener's son, named Pentaur."

"Pentaur?" said the dwarf. "Pentaur? He has the haughty air and the
expression of the old Mohar, and would be sure to rise; but they are
going to break his proud neck for him."

"So much the better," said the old woman. "Uarda would be just the wife
for you, she is good and steady, and no one knows--"

"What?" said Nemu.

"Who her mother was--for she was not one of us. She came here from
foreign parts, and when she died she left a trinket with strange letters
on it. We must show it to one of the prisoners of war, after you have got
her safe; perhaps they could make out the queer inscription. She comes of
a good stock, that I am certain; for Uarda is the very living image of
her mother, and as soon as she was born, she looked like the child of a
great man. You smile, you idiot! Why thousands of infants have been in my
hands, and if one was brought to me wrapped in rags I could tell if its
parents were noble or base-born. The shape of the foot shows it--and
other marks. Uarda may stay where she is, and I will help you. If
anything new occurs let me know."

CHAPTER XXI.

When Nemu, riding on an ass this time, reached home, he found neither his
mistress nor Nefert within.

The former was gone, first to the temple, and then into the town; Nefert,
obeying an irresistible impulse, had gone to her royal friend Bent-Anat.

The king's palace was more like a little town than a house. The wing in
which the Regent resided, and which we have already visited, lay away
from the river; while the part of the building which was used by the
royal family commanded the Nile.

It offered a splendid, and at the same time a pleasing prospect to the
ships which sailed by at its foot, for it stood, not a huge and solitary
mass in the midst of the surrounding gardens, but in picturesque groups
of various outline. On each side of a large structure, which contained
the state rooms and banqu