ut her arm round her, drew her head against her bosom, and whispered
pitifully:

"You cruel, hard-hearted child; forgive your poor, miserable mother, and
do not make the measure of her wretchedness overflow."

Then Nefert rose, kissed her mother's hand, and went silently into her
own room.

Katuti remained alone; she felt as if a dead hand held her heart in its
icy grasp, and she muttered to herself:

"Ani is right--nothing turns to good excepting that from which we expect
the worst."

She held her hand to her head, as if she had heard something too strange
to be believed. Her heart went after her daughter, but instead of
sympathizing with her she collected all her courage, and deliberately
recalled all the reproaches that Nefert had heaped upon her. She did not
spare herself a single word, and finally she murmured to herself: "She
can spoil every thing. For Mena's sake she will sacrifice me and the
whole world; Mena and Rameses are one, and if she discovers what we are
plotting she will betray us without a moment's hesitation. Hitherto
all has gone on without her seeing it, but to-day something has been
unsealed in her--an eye, a tongue, an ear, which have hitherto been
closed. She is like a deaf and dumb person, who by a sudden fright is
restored to speech and hearing. My favorite child will become the spy of
my actions, and my judge."

She gave no utterance to the last words, but she seemed to hear them
with her inmost ear; the voice that could speak to her thus, startled
and frightened her, and solitude was in itself a torture; she called
the dwarf, and desired him to have her litter prepared, as she intended
going to the temple, and visiting the wounded who had been sent home
from Syria.

"And the handkerchief for the Regent?" asked the little man.

"It was a pretext," said Katuti. "He wishes to speak to you about the
matter which you know of with regard to Paaker. What is it?"

"Do not ask," replied Nemu, "I ought not to betray it. By Besa, who
protects us dwarfs, it is better that thou shouldst never know it."

"For to-day I have learned enough that is new to me," retorted Katuti.
"Now go to Ani, and if you are able to throw Paaker entirely into
his power--good--I will give--but what have I to give away? I will be
grateful to you; and when we have gained our end I will set you free and
make you rich."

Nemu kissed her robe, and said in a low voice: "What is the end?"

"You know what Ani is striving