ruth."

"How is that?" burst out the prince. "For my journey his holiness
assigned two hundred talents in gold and goods. Can it be that all this
is expended?"

"Yes," answered Tutmosis.

"How is that?" cried the viceroy. "Did not the nomarchs entertain us
all the way?"

"Yes, but we paid them for doing so."

"Then they are rogues and robbers if they receive us as guests and then
plunder us."

"Be not angry, and I will explain."

"Sit down."

Tutmosis took a seat.

"Dost Thou know," asked he, "that for a month past I have eaten food
from thy kitchen, drunk wine from thy pitchers, and dressed from thy
wardrobe?"

"Thou hast a right to that privilege."

"But I have never acted thus hitherto. I have lived, dressed, and
amused myself at my own expense, so as not to burden thy treasury. It
is true that Thou hast paid my debts more than once, but that was only
a part of my outlay."

"Never mind the debts!"

"In a similar condition," continued Tutmosis, "are some tens of noble
youths of thy court. They maintained themselves so as to uphold the
splendor of the government; but now, like myself, they live at thy
expense, for they have nothing to pay with."

"Sometime I will reward them."

"Now," continued Tutmosis, "we take from thy treasury, for want is
oppressing us; the nomarchs do the same. If they had means they would
give feasts and receptions at their own cost; but as they have not the
means they receive recompense. Wilt Thou call them rogues now?"

"I condemned them too harshly. Anger, like smoke, covered my eyes,"
said Ramses. "I am ashamed of my words; none the less I wish that
neither courtiers, soldiers, nor working men should suffer injustice.
But since my means are exhausted it will be necessary to borrow. Would
a hundred talents suffice? What thinkest thou?"

"I think that no one would lend us a hundred talents," whispered
Tutmosis.

The viceroy looked at him haughtily.

"Is that a fit answer to the son of a pharaoh?" asked he.

"Dismiss me from thy presence," said Tutmosis, sadly, "but I have told
the truth. At present no one will make us a loan, for there is no one
to do so."

"What is Dagon for?" wondered the prince. "He is not near my court; is
he dead?"

"Dagon is in Pi-Bast, but he spends whole days with other Phoenician
merchants in the temple of Astarte in prayer and penance."

"Why such devotion? Is it because that I was in a temple that my banker
thinks he too should take