aptain said in a
whisper, "else thou wilt have Rameses abusing Har-hat before his
daughter."

"What matters it to me, his temper or her hurt?" Siptah snarled.

"Churl!" responded Menes, amiably.

"What is amiss between the heir and the fan-bearer?" Kenkenes asked.

"Everything! Rameses fairly suffocates in the presence of the new
adviser. The Pharaoh is sadly torn between the twain. He worships
Rameses and, body of Osiris! how he loves Har-hat! But sometime the
council chamber with the trio therein will fall--the walls outward, the
roof, up--mark me!"

Again, clear and with offensive emphasis, Siptah's voice was heard
disputing, in the general babble.

"Magnify the cowardice of the Rebu if you will, but it was Har-hat who
made them afraid," he was saying.

The slow eyes of Rameses turned in the direction of the tacit
challenge. Menes' black brows knitted at Siptah, but Kenkenes came to
the rescue. A lyre, the inevitable instrument of ancient revels, was
near him and he caught it up, sweeping his fingers strongly across the
strings.

A momentary silence fell, broken at once by the applause of the
peace-loving, who cried, "Sing for us, Kenkenes!"

He shook his head, smiling. "I did but test the harmony of the
strings; harmony is grateful to mine ear."

Menes' lips twitched. "If harmony is here," he said with meaning, "you
will find it in the instrument."

Again, a voice from the general conversation broke in--this time from
Rameses.

"Kenkenes hath outlasted an army of other singers. I knew him as such
when mine uncles yet lived and my father was many moves from the
throne. It was while we dwelt unroyally here in Memphis. They made
thee sing in the temple, Kenkenes. Dost thou remember?"

"Aye," Ta-user took it up. "They made thee sing in the temple and it
went sore against thee, Kenkenes. Most of the upper classes in the
college here were hoarse or treble by turns, and the priests required
thee by force from thy tutors because thou couldst sing. Thou wast a
stubborn lad, as pretty as a mimosa and as surly as a caged lion. I
can see thee now chanting, with a voice like a lark, and frowning like
a very demon from Amenti!"

The princess laughed musically at her own narration and received the
applause of the others with a serene countenance. She had repaid
Kenkenes for his implied championship of her cause earlier in the
evening.

"Art still as reluctant, Kenkenes?" the Lady Senci called