gone, Masanath went into the inner
chamber. Standing by the old woman, who lay upon a mattress, set on
the top of the sarcophagus, she said hurriedly:

"Ye may not remain here. Kenkenes is known to me and he will not
return."

"Thou dost not tell me he was false to us," Deborah exclaimed. "Nay, I
will not believe it," she declared.

"Nay, he was the soul of honor, but he is dead."

"Dead!" the old woman cried, catching at her dress.

"Hush! Tell her not!"

"Aye, thou art right. Tell her not! But--but how did he die?"

"By drowning. His boat was discovered battered and overturned among
the wharf-piling at Memphis, some weeks agone."

The old woman was silent for a moment and then she shook her head.

"He is a resourceful youth and he may have procured another boat and
set this one adrift to deceive his enemies. Yet, the time has been so
long, it may be; it may be."

"None in Memphis doubts it. His father hath given him up and his house
and his people are in mourning. But we may not lose this moment in
surmises. Wilt thou go with me into Memphis--if this sending is
withdrawn?"

"There is no other choice," Deborah answered after some pondering.
"Kenkenes offered us refuge with his father--alas! that the young man
should die!" After shaking her head and muttering to herself in her
own tongue, she went on. "But Rachel hesitated to accept, at first
from maiden shyness, though now she hath a secret fear, I doubt not,
that the Egyptian may have played her false. The sorry news must be
told her ere she would go."

"Nay, keep it from her yet a while. Tell her not now."

"How may we?" Deborah asked helplessly.

"Listen. I am a householder in Memphis for a year. The place is
secure from much visiting and only my trusted servants are there. They
will not tell her--none else will--thou and I shall keep discreet
tongues, but if the fact creep out, in the way of such things, we need
not accuse ourselves of killing her hope. As thou sayest, the young
man may not be dead. But let us not risk anything.

"And furthermore," she caught up the line of her talk before Deborah
could answer, "I may as well work good out of an evil I can not escape.
I am betrothed to the heir of the crown of Egypt--"

Deborah flung up her hand, drawing away in her amazement.

"Thou! A coming queen over the proud land of Mizraim--a guest in the
retreat of enslaved Israel!"

Masanath bent her head. "Ye, in your want and