At this instant Nemu, who had not lost a word of the conversation, came in as if straight from the garden and said: 

“Pardon me, my lady; but I have heard a strange thing.”

“Speak,” said Katuti.

The high and mighty princess Bent-Anat, the daughter of Rameses, is said to have an open love-affair with a young priest of the House of Seti.”

“You barefaced scoundrel!” exclaimed Ani, and his eyes sparkled with rage.  “Prove what you say, or you lose your tongue.”

“I am willing to lose it as a slanderer and traitor according to the law,” said the little man abjectly, and yet with a malicious laugh; “but this time I shall keep it, for I can vouch for what I say.  You both know that Bent-Anat was pronounced unclean because she stayed for an hour and more in the house of a paraschites.  She had an assignation there with the priest.  At a second, in the temple of Hatasu, they were surprised by Septah, the chief of the haruspices of the House of Seti.”

“Who is the priest?” asked Ani with apparent calmness.

“A low-born man,” replied Nemu, “to whom a free education was given at the House of Seti, and who is well known as a verse-maker and interpreter of dreams.  His name is Pentaur, and it certainly must be admitted that he is handsome and dignified.  He is line for line the image of the pioneer Paaker’s late father.  Didst thou ever see him, my lord?”

The Regent looked gloomily at the floor and nodded that he had.  But Katuti cried out; “Fool that I am! the dwarf is right!  I saw how she blushed when her brother told her how the boys had rebelled on his account against Ameni.  It is Pentaur and none other!”

“Good!” said Ani, “we will see.”

With these words he took leave of Katuti, who, as he disappeared in the garden, muttered to herself:  “He was wonderfully clear and decided to-day; but jealousy is already blinding him and will soon make him feel that he cannot get on without my sharp eyes.”

Nemu had slipped out after the Regent.

He called to him from behind a fig-tree, and hastily whispered, while he bowed with deep respect: 

“My mother knows a great deal, most noble highness!  The sacred Ibis

[Ibis religiosa.  It has disappeared from Egypt There were two varieties of this bird, which was sacred to Toth, and mummies of both have been found in various places.  Elian states that an immortal Ibis was shown at Hermopolis.  Plutarch says, the ibis destroys poisonous reptiles, and that priests draw the water for their purifications where the Ibis has drunk, as it will never touch unwholesome water.]

wades through the fen when it goes in search of prey, and why shouldst thou not stoop to pick up gold out of the dust?  I know how thou couldst speak with the old woman without being seen.”

“Speak,” said Ani.

“Throw her into prison for a day, hear what she has to say, and then release her—­with gifts if she is of service to you—­if not, with blows.  But thou wilt learn something important from her that she obstinately refused to tell me even.”