splendid of all. It had three windows, one looking out upon the
garden of the tower towards the east, and another towards the south,
and the third towards the high-road. Opposite the eastern window
stood a golden bed, with a coverlet woven of gold and purple and fine
linen.

And no one but Aseneth herself had ever even sat upon that bed, so
magnificent and so sacred was it.

Besides all this, the tower had all around it a garden with a high
wall of squared blocks of stone. The gates (there were four of them)
were of iron, and each was guarded by eighteen stalwart men in
armour. The garden itself was full of shady trees, bearing splendid
fruit; and there was a springing fountain at one side of it, whose
water ran first into a marble trough, and then out of that into a
stream which watered all the garden and kept it fresh and green.

Here Aseneth lived until she was eighteen years old, beautiful and
proud and caring for no one except her father and mother and her
seven maidens. Now the year in which she became eighteen was the
first of the seven years of plenty, of which King Pharaoh had dreamt
in the dream of the seven cows and the seven ears of corn, which is
written in the Bible. And Joseph was now travelling over all the land
of Egypt to gather together corn to store up against the seven years
of famine which were to follow the seven of plenty. And upon a
certain day in harvest-time, Potipherah and his wife, who had been
away at an estate which they possessed in the country, returned to
the city of On; and no sooner had they done so than they received a
message from Joseph, saying, "Let me come and rest at your house
during the heat of the day." Whereupon Potipherah was greatly