hange had
occurred which other priests termed his "apostasy," the old man had
grieved even more keenly than over his flight. Had he, Rui, been
younger, he would have hated the man who had thus robbed him of his
fairest hopes; but the aged priest, who read men's hearts like an open
book and could judge the souls of his fellow-mortals with the calm
impartiality of an unclouded mind, confessed that he had been to blame
in failing to foresee his pupil's change of thought.

Education and precept had made Mesu an Egyptian priest according to his
own heart and that of the divinity; but after having once raised his
hand in the defence of his own people against those to whom he had been
bound only by human craft and human will, he was lost to the Egyptians
and became once more a true son of his race. And where this man of the
strong will and lofty soul led the way, others could not fail to follow.

Rui knew likewise full well what the renegade meant to give to his race;
he had confessed it himself to the priest-faith in the one God. Mesu had
rejected the accusation of perjury, declaring that he would never betray
the mysteries to the Hebrews, his sole desire was to lead them back
to the God whom they had worshipped ere Joseph and his family came to
Egypt. True, the "One" of the initiated resembled the God of the
Hebrews in many things, but this very fact had soothed the old sage; for
experience had taught him that the masses are not content with a single
invisible God, an idea which many, even among the more advanced of his
own pupils found difficult to comprehend. The men and women of the lower
classes needed visible symbols of every important thing whose influence
they perceived in and around them, and the Egyptian religion supplied
these images. What could an invisible creative power guiding the course
of the universe be to a love-sick girl? She sought the friendly Hathor,
whose gentle hands held the cords that bound heart to heart, the
beautiful mighty representative of her sex--to her she could trustingly
pour forth all the sorrows that burdened her bosom. What was the petty
grief of a mother who sought to snatch her darling child from death, to
the mighty and incomprehensible Deity who governed the entire universe?
But the good Isis, who herself had wept her eyes red in bitter anguish,
could understand her woe. And how often in Egypt it was the wife who
determined her husband's relations to the gods!

Rui had frequently