untouched. Is all that not enough?"

The girl's last question was full of resentment and reproach, and
Nebsecht, whose perfect sincerity was part of his very being, was silent,
as he would not venture to say yes. He had asked more in return for his
help than gold or silver. Now he remembered Pentaur's warning, and when
the jackals began to bark he took up the fire-stick,

[The hieroglyphic sign Sam seems to me to represent the wooden stick
used to produce fire (as among some savage tribes) by rapid friction
in a hollow piece of wood.]

and lighted some fuel that was lying ready. Then he asked himself what
Uarda's fate would be without her grandparents, and a strange plan which
had floated vaguely before him for some hours, began now to take a
distinct outline and intelligible form. He determined if the old man did
not return to ask the kolchytes or embalmers to admit him into their
guild--and for the sake of his adroitness they were not likely to refuse
him--then he would make Uarda his wife, and live apart from the world,
for her, for his studies, and for his new calling, in which he hoped to
learn a great deal. What did he care for comfort and proprieties, for
recognition from his fellow-men, and a superior position!

He could hope to advance more quickly along the new stony path than on
the old beaten track. The impulse to communicate his acquired knowledge
to others he did not feel. Knowledge in itself amply satisfied him, and
he thought no more of his ties to the House of Seti. For three whole days
he had not changed his garments, no razor had touched his chin or his
scalp, not a drop of water had wetted his hands or his feet. He felt half
bewildered and almost as if he had already become an embalmer, nay even a
paraschites, one of the most despised of human beings. This
self-degradation had an infinite charm, for it brought him down to the
level of Uarda, and she, lying near him, sick and anxious, with her
dishevelled hair, exactly suited the future which he painted to himself.

"Do you hear nothing?" Uarda asked suddenly. He listened. In the valley
there was a barking of dogs, and soon the paraschites and his wife
appeared, and, at the door of their hut, took leave of old Hekt, who had
met them on her return from Thebes.

"You have been gone a long time," cried Uarda, when her grandmother once
more stood before her. "I have been so frightened."

"The doctor was with you," said the old woman going i