, he lifted
the pink palms to his lips and pressed them there.

"Nay," she said, recovering herself and withdrawing her hands, "I am
not an Egyptian but a Hebrew, unbiased by the prejudices of thy nation.
It is not strange that I can understand thy rebellion, which is but a
rift in thine Egyptian make-up through which reason shows. Any alien
could comfort thee as well."

"And thou hast no more sympathy for me than any alien would have?" he
asked, somewhat piqued.

"Is there any other sympathizing alien with whom I may compare and
learn?" she asked with a smile.

She took up her bundle of herbs again and seemed to be preparing to
leave him.

"How dost thou know these things," he asked hurriedly; "all these
things--sculpture, religion, history?"

"I was not born a slave," she answered simply.

"Nay, cast out that word. I would never hear thee speak it, Rachel."

"Then, I was born out of servitude. My great grandsire was exempted by
Seti when Israel went into bondage. His children and all his house
were given to profit by the covenant. But the name grew wealthy and
powerful to the third generation. My father was Maai the
Compassionate, who loved his brethren better than himself. Them he
helped. Rameses the Great forgot his father's promise when he found he
had need of my father's treasure--" she paused and continued as if the
recital hurt her. "There were ten--four of my mother's house, six of
my father's. To the mines and the brick-fields they were sent, and in
a little space I was all that was left."

Horrified and conscience-stricken, Kenkenes made as if to speak, but
she went on hurriedly.

"My mother's nurse, Deborah, who went with us into servitude, is
learned, having been taught by my mother, and I have been her pupil."

"And there is not one of thy blood--not one guardian kinsman left to
thee?" Kenkenes asked slowly.

"Not one."

Up to this moment, during every interview with Rachel, Kenkenes had
forsworn some little prejudice, or sacrificed some of his blithe
self-esteem. But the tragic narrative swept all these supports from
him and left him solitary to face the charge of indirect complicity in
murder. He was an Egyptian--a loyal supporter of the government and
its policies; he had profited by Israel's toil, and if he succeeded to
his father's office, Israel would serve him directly in his labor for
the Pharaoh to be. He had known that Israel was oppressed, that Israel
died of hard