it and spoon-wielder
like you turns up. There--I will sit here."

"You are welcome," said the steward, "what do you bring?"

"Myself."

"Then you bring nothing great."

"Else I should not suit you either!" retorted the dwarf. "But seriously,
my lady mother, the noble Katuti, and the Regent, who just now is
visiting us, sent me here to ask you whether Paaker is not yet returned.
He accompanied the princess and Nefert to the City of the Dead, and the
ladies are not yet come in. We begin to be anxious, for it is already
late."

The steward looked up at the starry sky and said: "The moon is already
tolerably high, and my lord meant to be home before sun-down."

"The meal was ready," sighed the cook. "I shall have to go to work again
if he does not remain all night."

"How should he?" asked the steward. "He is with the princess Bent-Anat."

"And my mistress," added the dwarf.

"What will they say to each other," laughed gardener; "your chief
litter-bearer declared that yesterday on the way to the City of the Dead
they did not speak a word to each other."

"Can you blame the lord if he is angry with the lady who was betrothed
to him, and then was wed to another? When I think of the moment when he
learnt Nefert's breach of faith I turn hot and cold."

"Care the less for that," sneered the dwarf, "since you must be hot in
summer and cold in winter."

"It is not evening all day," cried the head groom. "Paaker never forgets
an injury, and we shall live to see him pay Mena--high as he is--for the
affront he has offered him.

"My lady Katuti," interrupted Nemu, "stores up the arrears of her
son-in-law."

"Besides, she has long wished to renew the old friendship with your
house, and the Regent too preaches peace. Give me a piece of bread,
steward. I am hungry!"

"The sacks, into which Mena's arrears flow seem to be empty," laughed
the cook.

"Empty! empty! much like your wit!" answered the dwarf. "Give me a bit
of roast meat, steward; and you slaves bring me a drink of beer."

"You just now said your maw was no bigger than a fly's head," cried the
cook, "and now you devour meat like the crocodiles in the sacred tank of
Seeland. You must come from a world of upside-down, where the men are as
small as flies, and the flies as big as the giants of the past."

"Yet, I might be much bigger," mumbled the dwarf while he munched on
unconcernedly, "perhaps as big as your spite which grudges me the
third bit of meat, wh