"On one hand, I have my new
belief concerning sculpture--on the other, the beliefs of my fathers.
I practise the first and make propitiation for the second. No harm
hath overtaken me. Am I not pardoned? Furthermore, Athor is beauty,
and beauty guided my hand in creating this statue. Therefore, Athor
being beauty, Athor was my confederate. Is it not lucid, O Son of
Wisdom?"

Hotep laughed. "Nay, thou wilt not prosper, Kenkenes. Thou servest
two masters. But there is one thing still unexplained--the favor of
Athor."

"That is not mine to boast. I have but craved it," Kenkenes replied
hesitatingly.

"Where doth she live?" Hotep asked, by way of experiment.

"In the quarries below."

There was no more doubt in the mind of Hotep. Here was a duty, plain
before him, and his dearest friend to counsel. His must be tender
wisdom and persuasive authority. Not a drop of the scribe's blood was
democratic. He could not understand love between different ranks of
society, and, as a result, doubted if it could exist. Kenkenes must be
awakened while it was time.

"Do thou hear me, O my Kenkenes," he said after some silence. "If I
overstep the liberty of a friend, remind me, but remember
thou--whatsoever I shall say will be said through love for thee, not to
chide thee. No man shapeth his career for himself alone, nor does
death end his deeds. He continues to act through his children and his
children's children to the unlimited extent of time. Seest thou not, O
Kenkenes, that the ancestor is terribly responsible? What more heavy
punishment could be meted to the original sinner, than to set him in
eternal contemplation of the hideous fruitfulness of his initial sin!

"I have said sin, because sin, only, is offense in the eyes of the
gods. But sin and error are one in the unpardoning eye of nature.
Thus, if thou dost err, though in all innocence, though the gods
absolve thee, thou wilt reap the bitter harvest of thy misguided
sowing, one day--thou or thy children after thee. The doom is spoken,
and however tardy, must fall--and the offense is never expiated. There
is nothing more relentless than consequence.

"If thou weddest unwisely thou dost double thy children's portion of
difficulty, since thou art unwise and their mother unfit. If,
perchance, thy only error lay in thy choice of wife, the result is
still the same. Let her be most worthy, and yet she may be most
unfitting. She must fit thy needs as th