Part 29 (1/2)
”Master,” he went on in a changed voice, ”I have been a fool and ive me since I acted for the best, only until the end no one ever knohat is the best Now here is the house and I go to ements By dawn perhaps you will be ready to start to Ethiopia”
”Do you really desire that I should accompany you there, Bes?”
”Certainly, Master That is unless you should desire that I accompany you somewhere else instead, by sea southward for instance If so, I do not know that I would refuse, since Ethiopia will not run away and there is much of the world that I should still like to visit Only then there is Kareht about, who expects, or, when she learns all, soon will expect, to be a queen,” he added doubtfully
”No, Bes, I ao to Ethiopia and not disappoint Kare naturally would like to try a sceptre”
”I think that is wisest, Master; at any rate the holy Tanofir thinks it wisest, and he is the voice of Fate Oh! why do we trouble who after all, every one of us, are nothing but pieces upon the board of Fate”
Then he turned and left , still in her festal robes, like one aits She looked at my face, then asked what troubled
”Much as I thought,” she said when I had finished ”These over-learned woe fish to catch and hold, and too much soul is like too ins to blow across the Nile Well, do not let us blame her or Bes, or Peroa who is already anxious for his dynasty and would rather that Amada were a priestess than your wife, or even the Goddess Isis, who no doubt is anxious for her votaries Let us rather blame the Power that is behind the veil, or to it bow our heads, seeing that we know nothing of the end for which it works So Egypt shuts her doors on you, ain, I trust, for there you would soon grow shorter by a head”
”I go to Ethiopia, reat o to Ethiopia, do we? Well, it is a long journey for an old woman, but I weary of Memphis where I have lived for so ood burial grounds”
”We!” I exclai a wife you have again found a mother and until I die we part no more”
When I heard this my eyes filled with tears My conscience smote me also because of late, and indeed for years past, I had thought so much of Amada and so little of my mother And noas A to learn the truth, because at the worst I, orshi+pped her, had savedher naain as she had done when I was a babe I knew not what to say, but re the pearls, I drew them out and placed them round s and sems as these become white locks and withered breasts but ill
Yet, my Son, I will keep them for you till you find a wife, if not Amada, then another”
”If not Amada, I shall never find a wife,” I said bitterly, whereat she smiled
Then she left me to make ready before she slept a while
Work as ould noon had passed two hours, on the following day, before ere prepared to start, for there was e of friends and the er caypt's sake to think again before I left theo I must, whither the holy Tanofir would know if at any time Pharaoh desired to learn In reply to this caifts froher nobility, a commission as his envoy to whatever land I wandered, and so forth, which Ithe house to seek the boat which Bes had er at the sight of whom my heart leapt, for he was priest of Isis
He bowed and handedhand and read:
”From the Prophetess of Isis whose house is at Aypt, to the Count Shabaka,
”I learn, Othe reason my heart is sore Believe me, my Cousin, I love you well, better than any who lives upon the earth, nor will that love ever change, since the Goddess who holds my future in her hands, knows of e are made and is not jealous of the past Therefore she will not be wroth at the earthly love of one who is gathered to her heavenly ar and mine be on you and if we see each other no ain in the halls of Osiris Farewell, beloved Shabaka Oh! why did you suffer that black master of lies, the dwarf Bes, to persuade you to hide the truth fro ended and beloere two stains still hich I kneere caused by tears Moreover, wrapped in a piece of silk and fastened to the scroll was a little gold ring graven with the royal _uraeus_ that Aht I had noted it on the first finger of her right hand
I took my stylus and my waxen tablets and wrote on one of them:
”Had you been a ed me differently but, learned priestess and prophetess as you are, a woman you remain Perchance a time may come when once more you will turn to , I will come Yea, if I a can really part us Meanwhile by day and by night I wear your ring and whenever I look on it I think of Aet Amada the priestess who for her soul's sake has been pleased to break the heart of the ed so sorely in her pride and anger”
This tablet I wrapped up and sealed, using clay and her own ring to ave it for delivery to the priest