e till he emerges from the spell, then make him writhe.
Meantime, save thy tears. Never was a man worth one of them."

He kissed her again and set her inside Senci's house.

But one remained now of the procession he had escorted from the river.
This was the Lady Ta-meri's litter, and his own chariot stood ahead of
it. She had lifted the curtains and was piling the opposite seat with
cushions in a manner unmistakably inviting. He hesitated a moment.
Should he dismiss his charioteer and journey to the nomarch's mansion
in the companionable luxury of the litter? But even while he debated
with himself, he passed her with a soft word and stepped into his
chariot.

[1] The inundation, more properly Nilus--the river-god.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MARGIN OF THE NILE

Meneptah having come and the old regime of life resumed, Memphis
subsided into her normal state of dignity. Mentu remained in his house
preparing for his investiture with the office of murket. His hours
were spent in study, and the coming and going of Kenkenes crossed his
consciousness as swiftly as the shadows wavered under his young palms.
His son might work for hours near him on mysterious drawings, but so
deep was the great artist in the writings of the old murkets that he
did not think to ask him what he did. It might not have won his
attention even had he seen the young man burn the sheets of papyrus
thereafter, and grow restless and dissatisfied. He remarked, however,
that Kenkenes was absent during the noon-meal, but when the sundown
repast was served and the young man was in his place, Mentu had
forgotten that he had not been there at midday.

Kenkenes had visited his niche in the Arabian desert. On his way to
the statue he came to the line of rocks where he had hidden himself to
get Athor's likeness, and looked down into the quarry opposite him. He
was astonished to see at the ledge, just below, a great water-cart with
three humped oxen attached. The water-bearers were grouped about it
and a Hebrew youth was drawing off the water in skins and jars. The
children received their burdens from his hands and passed up the wooden
incline to the scaffold. There Kenkenes saw that the incline had been
extended to the level of the platform, and the children were able to
deliver the hides directly into the hands of the laborers. Then it
occurred to Kenkenes that there was not a woman in sight about the
quarries. While he wondered, Rachel emer