ignored the simplest rules of
proportion, perspective and form. The sculptor's ability to suggest
majesty and repose, and at the same time ignore anatomical
construction, was wonderful. To preserve the features and individual
characteristics of a model and obey the rules of convention was a feat
to be achieved only by an Egyptian. There was no lack of genius in
him, but he had been denied liberty of execution until he knew no other
forms but those his fathers followed generations before.

All Egypt was but a padding that the structural framework of religion
supported. Science, art, literature, government, commerce, whatever
the member, it was built upon a bone of religion. The processes and
uses of sculpture were controlled by the sculptor's ritual and woe unto
him who departed therefrom in depicting the gods! The deed was
sacrilege.

In the portrait-forms the limits were less severely drawn. There were
a dozen permissible attitudes, and, the characteristic features might
be represented with all fidelity; but there were boundaries that might
not be overstepped. The result was an artistic perversion that
well-nigh perpetrated a grotesque slander on the personal appearance of
the race.

After the manner of Egyptians it was understood that Kenkenes was to
follow his father's calling, and ahead of him were years of labor laid
in narrow lines. If he rebelled, he incurred infinite difficulty and
opposition, and yet he could not wholly submit. He had been an apt and
able pupil during the long process of his instruction, but when the
moment of actual practice of his art arrived, he had rebelled. His
first work had been his last and, in the estimation of his father, had
entailed a grievous loss. Thereafter he had been limited to copying
the great sculptor's plans, the work of scribes and underlings.

Thus, he had passed three years that chafed him because of their
comparative idleness and their implied rebuke. The pressure finally
became too great, and he began to weigh the matter of compromise. If
he could secretly satisfy his own sense of the beautiful he might
follow the ritual with grace.

His cogitations, as he sat before his table, assumed form and purpose.

Presently Mentu, raising his head, noted that the shadows were falling
aslant the court. With an interested but inarticulate remark, he
dropped his pen among its fellows in an earthenware tray, his plans
into an open chest, and went out across th