ne stands who awaits the coming
of an honoured guest. I ran to her and kneeling, kissed her hand,
saying,

"My mother! My mother, I have come safe home and greet you."

"I greet you also, my son," she answered, bending down and kissing me
on the brow, "who have been in far lands and passed so many dangers.
I greet you and thank the guardian gods who have brought you safe home
again. Rise, my son."

I rose and kissed her on the face, then looked at the servants who were
bowing their welcome to me, and said,

"How comes it, Lady of the House, that all are gathered here? Did you
await some guest?"

"We awaited you, my son. For an hour have we stood here listening for
the sound of your feet."

"Me!" I exclaimed. "That is strange, seeing that I have ridden fast
and hard from the East, tarrying only a few minutes, and those since I
entered Memphis, when I met----" and I stopped.

"Met whom, Shabaka?"

"The lady Amada walking in the procession of Isis."

"Ah! the lady Amada. The mother waits that the son may stop to greet the
lady Amada!"

"But _why_ did you wait, my mother? Who but a spirit or a bird of
the air could have told you that I was coming, seeing that I sent no
messenger before me?"

"You must have done so, Shabaka, since yesterday one came from the holy
Tanofir, our relative who dwells in the desert in the burial-ground of
Sekera. He bore a message from Tanofir to me, telling me to make ready
since before sundown to-night you, my son, would be with me, having
escaped great dangers, accompanied by the dwarf Bes, your servant, and
six strange Eastern men. So I made ready and waited; also I prepared
lodging for the six strange men in the outbuildings behind the house and
sent a thank offering to the temple. For know, my son, I have suffered
much fear for you."

"And not without cause, as you will say when I tell you all," I answered
laughing. "But how Tanofir knew that I was coming is more than I can
guess. Come, my mother, greet Bes here, for had it not been for him,
never should I have lived to hold your hand again."

So she greeted him and thanked him, whereon Bes rolled his eyes and
muttered something about the holy Tanofir, after which we entered the
house. Thence I despatched a messenger to the Prince Peroa saying that
if it were his pleasure I would wait on him at once, seeing that I had
much to tell him. This done I bathed and caused my hair and beard to be
trimmed and, discarding the Eastern