rt on their provinces,
and when he had heard them out, he was wearied. Besides, he was to hold
an evening reception and did not wish to be late in beginning.

"And again I shall not be with her," thought he. "Poor girl! for twenty
days she has not seen me."

He summoned the negro.

"Hast Thou that cage which Sarah gave thee when we went to greet his
holiness?"

"I have."

"Take a pigeon from it, and let the bird loose."

"The pigeons are eaten."

"Who ate them?"

"Thou. I told the cook that those birds came from the Lady Sarah; so he
made a roast and pies out of them for thee, worthiness."

"May the crocodiles eat you both!" cried the prince, in anger.

He sent for Tutmosis and dispatched him immediately to Sarah. He
explained to him the history of the pigeons, and said,

"Give her emerald earrings, bracelets, anklets, and two talents. Say
that I am angry because she concealed her condition, but that I will
forgive her if the child is healthy and handsome. Should she have a
boy, I will give her another place," finished he, with a smile. "But
but persuade her to put away even a few Jews, and to take even a few
Egyptian men and women. I do not wish my son to be born into such
company; besides, he might play with Jew children. They would teach him
to give his father the worst dates of the harvest."

CHAPTER XIX

THE foreign quarter in Memphis lay on the northeastern extremity of the
city near the river. There were several hundred houses in that place
and many thousand people, Assyrians, Greeks, Jews, most of all,
Phoenicians.

That was a wealthy quarter. A street thirty paces in width formed its
leading artery. This street was rather straight, and paved with flat
stones. On both sides were houses of sandstone, brick, or limestone,
varying in height from three to five stories. In the cellars were
stores of raw materials; on the ground floors were arched rooms; on the
first stories dwellings of wealthy people; higher were the workshops of
weavers, tailors, jewelers; highest of all, the crowded dwellings of
laborers.

The buildings of this quarter, like those in the whole city, were
mainly white; but one might see stone houses as green as a meadow, as
yellow as a wheat-field, as blue as the sky. or as red as blood.

The front walls of many houses were ornamented with pictures
representing the occupations of people who dwelt in them. On the house
of a jeweler long rows of pictures announced that its o