his daughter.

"Tafet tells me," said he, when they were alone, "that Thou art always
in the house. Why is this? Thou shouldst look at least on the garden."

"I am afraid," whispered Sarah.

"Why be afraid of thy own garden? Here Thou art mistress, a great
lady."

"Once I went out in the daytime. People of some sort stared at me, and
said to one another, 'Look! that is the heir's Jewess; she delays the
overflow.'."

"They are fools!" interrupted Gideon. "Is this the first time that the
Nile is late in its overflow? But go out in the evening."

Sarah shook her head with greater vigor.

"I do not wish, I do not wish. Another time I went out in the evening.
All at once two women pushed out from a side path. I was frightened and
wished to flee, when one of them, the younger and smaller, seized my
hands, saying, 'Do not flee, we must look at thee;' the second, the
elder and taller, stood some steps in front and looked me in the eyes
directly. Ah, father, I thought that I should turn into stone. What a
look, what a woman!"

"Who could she be?" asked Gideon.

"The elder woman looked like a priestess."

"And did she say anything?"

"Nothing. But when going and they were hidden behind trees, I heard
surely the voice of the elder say these words: 'Indeed she is
beautiful!"

Gideon fell to thinking.

"Maybe they were great ladies from the court."

The sun went down, and on both banks of the Nile dense crowds of people
collected waiting impatiently for the signal of the overflow, which in
fact was belated. For two days the wind had been blowing from the sea
and the river was green; the sun had passed the star Sothis already,
but in the well of the priest in Memphis the water had not risen even
the breadth of a finger. The people were alarmed, all the more since in
Upper Egypt, according to signals, the overflow proceeded with regular
increase and even promised to be perfect.

"What detains it at Memphis then?" asked the anxious earth-tillers
waiting for the signal in disquiet.

When the stars had appeared in the sky, Tafet spread a white cloth on
the table, placed on it the candlestick with seven lighted torches,
pushed up three armchairs, and announced that the Sabbath supper would
be served immediately.

Gideon covered his head then, and raising both hands above the table,
said with his eyes looking heavenward,

"God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Thou who didst lead our people out
of Egypt, who didst giv