eroy, for
clothes, slaves, and horses.

In the evening the prince, while yawning, spoke thus to Tutmosis,

"His holiness my father gave me a great lesson when he said that women
are very costly."

"The position is worse when there are no women," replied the exquisite.

"But I have four, and I do not even know clearly how. I might give thee
two of them."

"And Sarah?"

"Not her, especially if she has a son."

"If Thou wilt assign a good dowry, husbands will be found for those
charmers most easily."

The prince yawned a second time.

"I do not like to hear of dowries," said he. "Aaa! What luck, that I
shall tear away from thee and settle among the priests!"

"Wilt Thou indeed?"

"I must. At last I shall learn of them why the pharaohs are growing
poorer. Well, I shall sleep."

CHAPTER XXV

THAT same day, in Memphis, Dagon the Phoenician, the viceroy's worthy
banker, lay on a couch under the veranda of his mansion. Around him
were fragrant potted bushes with needle-like leaves. Two black slaves
cooled the rich man with fans, and he, while playing with a young ape,
was listening to accounts read by his scribe to him.

At that moment a slave with a sword, helmet, dart, and shield (the
banker loved military dress), announced the worthy Rabsun, a Phoenician
merchant then settled in Memphis.

The guest entered, bowed profoundly, and dropped his eyelids in such
fashion that Dagon commanded the scribe and the slaves to withdraw from
the veranda. Then, as a man of foresight, he surveyed every corner, and
said to the visitor,

"We may talk."

Rabsun began without prelude,

"Dost thou know, worthiness, that Prince Hiram has come from Tyre?"

Dagon sprang up from the couch.

"May the leprosy seize him and his princeship!" shouted the banker.

"He has just reminded me," continued the guest, calmly, "that there is
a misunderstanding between him and thee."

"What misunderstanding?" cried Dagon. "That thief has robbed,
destroyed, ruined me. When I sent my ships after other Tyrian vessels
to the west for silver, the helmsmen of that thief Hiram cast fire on
them, tried to push them into a shallow. Well, my ships came back
empty, burnt, and shattered. May the fire of heaven burn him!"
concluded the raging banker.

"But if Hiram has for thee a profitable business?" inquired the guest,
stolidly.

The storm raging in Dagon's breast ceased on a sudden.

"What business can he offer me?" asked the banker, wi