a period? Did the disfavor into
which I have fallen alarm thee?"

"Gods!" cried the exquisite. "When wert Thou in disfavor, and in whose?
Every courier of his holiness inquired for thy health; the worthy lady,
Nikotris, and his worthiness Herhor have sailed toward this villa
repeatedly, thinking that Thou wouldst make a hundred steps toward them
after they had made a couple of thousand toward thee. I say nothing of
the troops. In time of review the warriors of thy regiments are as
silent as palm-trees, and do not go from the barracks. As to the worthy
Patrokles, he drinks and curses all day from vexation."

So the prince had not been in disfavor, or if he had been the disfavor
was ended. This thought acted on Ramses like a goblet of good wine. He
took a bath quickly, anointed his body, put on fresh linen, a new
kaftan, a helmet with plumes, and then went to Sarah.

Sarah screamed when she saw the prince arrayed thus. She rose up, and
seizing him around the neck, whispered,

"Thou art going, my lord! Thou wilt not come back to me."

"Why not?" wondered the heir. "Have I not gone away often and returned
afterward?"

"I remember thee dressed in just this way over there in our valley,"
said Sarah. "Oh, where are those hours! So quickly have they passed,
and so long is it since they vanished."

"But I will return and bring the most famous physician."

"What for?" inquired Tafet. "She is well, my dear chick she needs only
rest. But Egyptian physicians would bring real sickness."

The prince did not look at the talkative woman.

"This was my pleasantest month with thee," said Sarah, nestling up to
Ramses, "but it has not brought happiness."

The trumpets sounded on the royal barge, repeating a signal given
higher up on the river.

Sarah started.

"Dost Thou hear, lord, that terrible outburst? Thou hearest and
smilest, and, woe to me, Thou art tearing away from my embraces. When
trumpets call nothing can hold thee, least of all thy slave, Sarah."

"Wouldst them have me listen forever to the cackling of hens in the
country?" interrupted the prince, now impatient. "Be well, and wait for
me joyously."

Sarah let him go from her grasp, but she had such a mournful expression
that Ramses grew mild and stroked her.

"Only be calm. Thou fearest the sound of our trumpets. But were they
ill-omened the first day?"

"My lord," answered Sarah, "I know that over there they will keep thee,
so grant me this one, this las