ied over early to the other
side of the river to the Memnonia quarter, no doubt to carry out some
funeral rite. This description, which in no way tallied with the elegant
Tahoser, completely upset the suppositions of Nofre and Souhem.

They returned to the house sad and disappointed. The men and women
servants sat down on the ground in desolate attitudes, letting one of
their hands hang down, its palm turned up, and placing the other on
their head, all of them calling together in plaintive chorus, "Woe! woe!
woe! Our mistress is gone!"

"By Oms, the dog of the lower regions, I shall find her," said old
Souhem, "even if I have to walk living to the very confines of the
Western Region to which travel the dead. She was a kind mistress; she
gave us food in abundance, did not exact excessive labour, and caused us
to be beaten only when we deserved it and in moderation. Her foot was
not heavy on our bowed necks, and in her home a slave might believe
himself free."

"Woe! woe! woe!" repeated the men and women as they cast dust upon their
heads.

"Alas! dear mistress, who knows where you are now?" said her faithful
maid, whose tears were flowing. "Perchance some enchanter compelled you
to leave your palace through a spell in order to work his odious will on
you. He will lacerate your fair body, will draw your heart out through a
cut like that made by the dissectors, will throw your remains to the
ferocious crocodiles, and on the day of reunion your mutilated soul will
find shapeless remains only. You will not go to join, at the end of the
passages of which the undertaker keeps the plan, the painted and gilded
mummy of your father, the high-priest Petamounoph, in the funeral
chamber which has been cut out for you."

"Calm yourself, Nofre," said old Souhem; "let us not despair too soon.
It may be that Tahoser will soon return. She has no doubt yielded to
some fancy which we cannot guess, and presently we shall see her come
back, gay and smiling, holding aquatic flowers in her hands."

Wiping her eyes with the corner of her dress, the maid nodded assent.
Souhem crouched down, bending his knees like those of the dog-faced
figures which are roughly carved out of a square block of basalt, and
pressing his temples between his dry hands, seemed to reflect deeply.
His face of a reddish brown, his sunken eyes, his prominent jaws, the
deeply wrinkled cheeks, his straight hair framing in his face like
bristles, made him altogether l