“Perhaps you expect me to be pleased at such a shameful suspicion?”

“No, not that; but at all events now you can tell me what has happened at our house since I left.”

“A pretty story that is!  Why only to think of it makes my mouth as bitter, as if I were chewing wormwood.”

“You said I had been robbed.”

“Yes indeed:  no one was ever so robbed before.  There would have been some comfort if the knaves had belonged to the thieves’ caste, for then we should have got the best part of our property back again, and should not after all have been worse off than many another; but when . . .”

[The cunning son of the architect, who robbed the treasure-house of Rhampsinitus was, according to Herodotus, (ii. 120), severely punished; but in Diod.  I. 80. we see that when thieves acknowledged themselves to the authorities to be such, they were not punished, though a strict watch was set over them.  According to Diodorus, there was a president of the thieves’ caste, from whom the stolen goods could be reclaimed on relinquishment of a fourth part of the same.  This strange rule possibly owed its rise to the law, which compelled every Egyptian to appear once in each year before the authorities of his district and give an account of his means of subsistence.  Those who made false statements were punished with death.  Diod.  I. 77.  Thus no one who valued his life could escape the watchful eye of the police, and the thief sacrificed the best part of his gains in order to save his life.]

“Keep to the point, for my time is limited.”

“You need not tell me that; I see old Hib can’t do anything right here in Persia.  Well, be it so, you’re master; you must give orders; I am only the servant, I must obey.  I won’t forget it.  Well, as I was saying, it was just at the time when the great Persian embassy came over to Sais to fetch Nitetis, and made everybody stare at them as if they were monsters or prodigies, that this shameful thing happened.  I was sitting on the mosquito-tower just as the sun was setting, playing with my little grandson, my Baner’s eldest boy—­he’s a fine strapping little lad now, wonderfully sharp and strong for his age.  The rogue was just telling me how his father, the Egyptians do that when their wives leave the children too much alone—­had hidden his mother’s shoes, and I was laughing heartily, because my Baner won’t let any of the little ones live with me, she always says I spoil them, and so I was glad she should have the trick played her—­when all of a sudden there was such a loud knocking at the house-door, that I thought there must be a fire and let the child drop off my lap.  Down the stairs I ran, three steps at a time, as fast as my long legs would carry me, and unbarred the door.  Before I had time to ask them what they wanted, a whole crowd of temple-servants and policemen—­there must have been at least fifteen of them—­forced their way into the