n woman."

"You dislike every one, Thamar," replied Ra'hel, smiling.

"Except you, mistress," answered the old woman, placing to her lips one
of the young woman's hands.

"I know it. You are devoted to me."

"I never had any children, and sometimes I fancy that I am your mother."

"Good Thamar," said Ra'hel, moved.

"Was I wrong," continued Thamar, "to consider her appearance so strange?
Her disappearance explains it. She said she was Tahoser, the daughter of
Petamounoph. She was nothing but a fiend which took that form to seduce
and tempt a child of Israel. Did you see how troubled she was when Poeri
spoke against the idols of wood, stone, and metal, and how difficult it
was for her to say, 'I will try to believe in your God'? It seemed as
though the words burnt her lips like hot coals."

"The tears which fell upon my breast were genuine tears,--a woman's
tears," said Ra'hel.

"Crocodiles weep when they want, and hyenas laugh to attract their
prey," continued the old woman. "The evil spirits which prowl at night
in the stones and ruins know many a trick and play every part."

"So, according to you, poor Tahoser was nothing but a phantom raised up
by hell?"

"Unquestionably," replied Thamar. "Is it likely that the daughter of the
priest Petamounoph would have fallen in love with Poeri and preferred
him to the Pharaoh, who, it is said, loves her?"

Ra'hel, who did not admit that any one in the world was superior to
Poeri, did not think this unlikely.

"If she loved him as much as she said she did, why did she run off when,
with your consent, he accepted her as his second wife? It was the
condition that she must renounce the false gods and adore Jehovah which
put to flight that devil in disguise."

"In any case, that devil had a very sweet voice and very tender eyes."

At bottom Ra'hel was perhaps not greatly dissatisfied with the
disappearance of Tahoser; she thus kept wholly to herself the heart
which she had been willing to share, and yet she had the merit of the
sacrifice she had made.

Under pretext of going to the market, Thamar went out and started for
the King's palace, her cupidity not having allowed her to forget his
promise. She had provided herself with a great bag of coarse cloth which
she proposed to fill with gold.

When she appeared at the palace gate the soldiers did not beat her as
they had done the first day. She enjoyed the king's favour, and the
officer of the guard made her enter