with feet grimy with dust. Any one
but he would at once have recognised, under the disguise of Hora,
Tahoser the daughter of the high-priest Petamounoph; but he never cast
his eyes upon me any more than does the basalt statue of a god upon the
devotees who offer up to it quarters of antelope and baskets of lotus."

These thoughts cast down the courage of Tahoser. Then she regained
confidence, and said to herself that her beauty, her youth, her love
would surely at last move that insensible heart. She would be so sweet,
so attentive, so devoted, she would use so much art and coquetry in
dressing herself, that certainly Poeri would not be able to resist. Then
she promised herself to reveal to him that the humble servant-maid was a
girl of high rank, possessing slaves, estates, and palaces, and she
foresaw, in her imagination, a life of splendid and radiant happiness
following upon a period of obscure felicity.

"First and foremost, let me make myself beautiful," she said, as she
rose and walked towards one of the pools.

On reaching it, she knelt upon the stone margin, washed her face, her
neck, and her shoulders. The disturbed water showed her in its mirror,
broken by innumerable ripples, her vague, trembling image which smiled
up to her as through green gauze; and the little fishes, seeing her
shadow and thinking that crumbs of bread were about to be thrown to
them, drew near the edge in shoals. She gathered two or three lotus
flowers which bloomed on the surface of the pool, twisted their stems
around the band that held in her hair, and made thus a head-dress which
all the skill of Nofre could never have equalled, even had she emptied
her mistress's jewel-caskets.

When she had finished and rose refreshed and radiant, a tame ibis, which
had gravely watched her, drew itself up on its two long legs, stretched
out its long neck, and flapped its wings two or three times as if to
applaud her.

Having finished her toilet, Tahoser resumed her place at the door of the
house and waited for Poeri. The heavens were of a deep blue; the light
shimmered in visible waves through the transparent air; intoxicating
perfumes rose from the flowers and the plants; the birds hopped amid the
branches, pecking at the berries; the fluttering butterflies chased one
another. This charming spectacle was rendered yet more bright by human
activity, which enlivened it by the communication of a soul. The
gardeners came and went, the servants ret