"And the other goes to the noble Mentu," Nechutes added in a meek voice.

"Sphinx!" Ta-meri cried, tapping him on the head. "You did not tell me
that."

The surprised delight of Kenkenes was not so bewildering as to blind
him to the reason why Nechutes had withheld this news from Ta-meri.
The blunt Egyptian was not anxious to speed his rival's cause.

"Does my father know of this?" he asked.

"I doubt not. The same messenger that brought me news of mine own
appointment departed for On when he learned that Mentu was there."

"Nay, but that will be wine in his veins," Kenkenes mused happily. "It
will make him young again. His late inactivity hath chafed him sorely."

"You have come honestly by your labor-loving," Nechutes commented.
"Hotep adds further that Mentu is the only one of the king's new
ministers that is no longer a young man."

"It is Rameses who counsels him, I doubt not," the sculptor replied.
"He hath great faith in the powers of youth. And behold what a cabinet
he hath built up for his father. First," Kenkenes continued,
enumerating on his fingers, "there is Nechutes--"

The new cup-bearer waved his hand, and Kenkenes went on.

"There is my father, the murket. He needs no further praise than the
utterance of his name. There is Hotep, on whose lips Toth abideth.
There is Seneferu, the faithful, whom the Rebu dreads. Next is
Kephren, the mohar,[1] who would outshine his father, the right hand of
the great Rameses, had he but nations to conquer. After him, Har-hat--"

"Hold! He is not appointed of the prince. He was Meneptah's
choice--and his alone," Nechutes interrupted. "It is rumored that
Rameses is not over-fond of him."

"He will be put to it to hold his high place in the face of the
prince's disfavor," Kenkenes cogitated.

"Nay, but he presses the prince hard for generalship. It must be so,
since he could win the king's good will over the protest of Rameses.
So I doubt not he can hold his own at court by prudence and strategy."

Meanwhile Ta-meri, in the depths of her chair, gazed at the pair
resentfully. They had grown interested in weighty things and had
seemingly forgotten her. So she sighed and bethought her how to punish
them.

"What a relief it will be when the Pharaoh returns to Memphis!" she
murmured in the pause that now followed. "He will be more welcome to
me than the Nile overflow. The city has been a desert to me since he
departed."

Nechutes looked at