listening to you.
Look," and he pointed to a dark-browed, fierce-eyed man of middle age
who passed up the hall as though he did not see us, "there goes my
cousin, Amenmeses. You know him, do you not?"

I shook my head.

"Then tell me what you think of him, at once before the first judgment
fades."

"I think he is a royal-looking lord, obstinate in mind and strong in
body, handsome too in his way."

"All can see that, Ana. What else?"

"I think," I said in a low voice so that none might overhear, "that his
heart is as black as his brow; that he has grown wicked with jealousy
and hate and will do you evil."

"Can a man grow wicked, Ana? Is he not as he was born till the end? I do
not know, nor do you. Still you are right, he is jealous and will do me
evil if it brings him good. But tell me, which of us will triumph at the
last?"

While I hesitated what to answer I became aware that someone had joined
us. Looking round I perceived a very ancient man clad in a white robe.
He was broad-faced and bald-headed, and his eyes burned beneath his
shaggy eyebrows like two coals in ashes. He supported himself on a staff
of cedar-wood, gripping it with both hands that for thinness were like
to those of a mummy. For a while he considered us both as though he were
reading our souls, then said in a full and jovial voice:

"Greeting, Prince."

Seti turned, looked at him, and answered:

"Greeting, Bakenkhonsu. How comes it that you are still alive? When we
parted at Thebes I made sure----"

"That on your return you would find me in my tomb. Not so, Prince, it is
I who shall live to look upon you in your tomb, yes, and on others who
are yet to sit in the seat of Pharaoh. Why not? Ho! ho! Why not, seeing
that I am but a hundred and seven, I who remember the first Rameses and
have played with his grandson, your grandsire, as a boy? Why should I
not live, Prince, to nurse your grandson--if the gods should grant you
one who as yet have neither wife nor child?"

"Because you will get tired of life, Bakenkhonsu, as I am already, and
the gods will not be able to spare you much longer."

"The gods can endure yet a while without me, Prince, when so many are
flocking to their table. Indeed it is their desire that one good priest
should be left in Egypt. Ki the Magician told me so only this morning.
He had it straight from Heaven in a dream last night."

"Why have you been to visit Ki?" asked Seti, looking at him sharply. "I
should