“You make me believe,” said Katuti, “that the weaker sex are gifted with stronger wills than the nobler.  In marrying us you style us, ’the mistress of the house,’ and if the elders of the citizens grow infirm, in this country it is not the sons but the daughters that must be their mainstay.  But we women have our weaknesses, and chief of these is curiosity.—­May I ask on what ground Bent-Anat dismissed you?”

“You know so much that you may know all,” replied Ani.  “She admitted me to speak to her alone.  It was yet early, and she had come from the temple, where the weak old prophet had absolved her from uncleanness; she met me, bright, beautiful and proud, strong and radiant as a Goddess, and a princess.  My heart throbbed as if I were a boy, and while she was showing me her flowers I said to myself:  ’You are come to obtain through her another claim to the throne.’  And yet I felt that, if she consented to be mine, I would remain the true brother, the faithful Regent of Rameses, and enjoy happiness and peace by her side before it was too late.  If she refused me then I resolved that fate must take its way, and, instead of peace and love, it must be war for the crown snatched from my fathers.  I tried to woo her, but she cut my words short, said I was a noble man, and a worthy suitor but—­”

“There came the but.”

“Yes—­in the form of a very frank ‘no.’  I asked her reasons.  She begged me to be content with the ‘no;’ then I pressed her harder, till she interrupted me, and owned with proud decision that she preferred some one else.  I wished to learn the name of the happy man—­that she refused.  Then my blood began to boil, and my desire to win her increased; but I had to leave her, rejected, and with a fresh, burning, poisoned wound in my heart.”

“You are jealous!” said Katuti, “and do you know of whom?”

“No,” replied Ani.  “But I hope to find out through you.  What I feel it is impossible for me to express.  But one thing I know, and that is this, that I entered the palace a vacillating man—­that I left it firmly resolved.  I now rush straight onwards, never again to turn back.  From this time forward you will no longer have to drive me onward, but rather to hold me back; and, as if the Gods had meant to show that they would stand by me, I found the high-priest Ameni, and the chief pioneer Paaker waiting for me in my house.  Ameni will act for me in Egypt, Paaker in Syria.  My victorious troops from Ethiopia will enter Thebes to-morrow morning, on their return home in triumph, as if the king were at their head, and will then take part in the Feast of the Valley.  Later we will send them into the north, and post them in the fortresses which protect Egypt against enemies coming from the east Tanis, Daphne, Pelusium, Migdol.  Rameses, as you know, requires that we should drill the serfs of the temples, and send them to him as auxiliaries.  I will send him half of the body-guard, the other half shall serve