with Bek en Chunsu. You know I rejected the suit
of the Regent. He must secretly be much vexed with me. That indeed would
not alarm me, but he is the guardian and protector appointed over me by
my father, and yet can I turn to him in confidence for counsel, and help?
No! I am still a woman, and Rameses' daughter! Sooner will I travel
through a thousand deserts than humiliate my father through his child. By
to-morrow I shall have decided; but, indeed, I have already decided to
make the journey, hard as it is to leave much that is here. Do not fear,
dear! but you are too tender for such a journey, and to such a distance;
I might--"

"No, no," cried Nefert. "I am going, too, if you were going to the four
pillars of heaven, at the limits of the earth. You have given me a new
life, and the little sprout that is green within me would wither again if
I had to return to my mother. Only she or I can be in our house, and I
will re-enter it only with Mena."

"It is settled--I must go," said the princess. "Oh! if only my father
were not so far off, and that I could consult him!"

"Yes! the war, and always the war!" sighed Nefert. "Why do not men rest
content with what they have, and prefer the quiet peace, which makes life
lovely, to idle fame?"

"Would they be men? should we love them?" cried Bent-Anat eagerly. "Is
not the mind of the Gods, too, bent on war? Did you ever see a more
sublime sight than Pentaur, on that evening when he brandished the stake
he had pulled up, and exposed his life to protect an innocent girl who
was in danger?"

"I dared not once look down into the court," said Nefert. "I was in such
an agony of mind. But his loud cry still rings in my ears."

"So rings the war cry of heroes before whom the enemy quails!" exclaimed
Bent-Anat.

"Aye, truly so rings the war cry!" said prince Rameri, who had entered
his sister's half-dark room unperceived by the two women.

The princess turned to the boy. "How you frightened me!" she said.

"You!" said Rameri astonished.

"Yes, me. I used to have a stout heart, but since that evening I
frequently tremble, and an agony of terror comes over me, I do not know
why. I believe some demon commands me."

"You command, wherever you go; and no one commands you," cried Rameri.
"The excitement and tumult in the valley, and on the quay, still agitate
you. I grind my teeth myself when I remember how they turned me out of
the school, and how Paaker set the dog at us. I have