Her face was full of triumph and her voice of prophecy.  She seemed to declare with authority the freedom of her people.  Kenkenes did not speak immediately.  His thoughts were undergoing a change.  The pity he had felt that night a month agone for her sanguine anticipation of freedom seemed useless and wasted.  Her confidence was no longer fatuous.  He admitted in entirety the truth of her last words.  If all Israel—­nay, if but part, if but its leaders were as able and determined as she, did Meneptah guess his peril?  Was not Egypt most ominously menaced?  He remembered that he had been amused at his father’s perturbation over the Israelitish unrest, but he vindicated Mentu then and there.  Furthermore, if all Israel were like unto her, what heinous injustice had been perpetrated upon an able people?  He found himself hoping that they would assert themselves and enter freedom, whether it be in Canaan or in Egypt.

“If ever Israel come to her own,” he said impulsively, “I pray thee, Rachel, remember me to her powers as her partizan in her darker days.  And take this into account when thou comest to judge Egypt.  The half of the nation know not thy people, even as I have been ignorant; and Osiris pity the hand that would oppress them if all Egypt is made acquainted with them as I have been in these past days.  Art thou indeed typical of thy race?”

“Hast thou not been among us often enough to discover?” she parried smilingly.

He shook his head.  “Nay, I have known but one Israelite, and she keeps me perpetually aghast at Egypt.”

Rachel’s eyes fell.

“We did speak of the statue,” she began.

“O, aye!  I meant to tell thee how I had fortified myself against mischance.  I can not break up the statue; sooner would I assail sweet flesh with a sledge; but when it is done I shall bury it in the sands.  It will wrench me sorely to do even that.  During the carving I feel most secure, for Memphis and Masaarah think I come hither to look after the removal of stones, since I am a sculptor.  But if an Egyptian should come upon it by mischance before it is complete, I have left no trace of myself upon it.  Most of all I trust to the generosity of the Hathors, who have abetted me so openly thus far.”

Rachel heard him thoughtfully.

“What a pity it is that thou must follow after the pattern of God and sate thy love of beauty by stealth under ban and in fear.  Till what time Mizraim sets this law of sculpture aside she may not boast her wisdom flawless.  It is past understanding why she exacts obedience to this law most diligently, which fathers these ill-favored images of her gods, when their habitations are most splendidly and most beautifully built.  She robeth herself in fine linen, decketh herself with jewels, anointeth her hair and maketh her eyes lovely with kohl, and lo! when she would picture herself she setteth her shoulders awry and slighteth the grace of her joints and the softness of her flesh.  O, that thy brave spirit had arisen long ago, ere the perversion had become a heritage, dear to the Egyptian sculptor as his bones!  But now, artist though he be, his eye is so befilmed by ancient use that he sees no monstrousness in his work.  So thou hast nation-wide, nation-old, nation-defended custom to fight.  And alas! thou art but one, Kenkenes, and I fear for thee.”