your brother to open those great bronze gates that I heard clash behind
us--then and not before."

At this moment their talk came to an end, for the chariot was stayed
at the steps of the great hall where Abi waited to receive his royal
guests. He stood at the head of the steps, a huge, coarse, vigorous man
of about sixty years of age, on whose fat, swarthy face there was
still, oddly enough, some resemblance to the delicate, refined-featured
Pharaoh.

Tua summed him up in a single glance, and instantly hated him even more
than she had hated Amathel, Prince of Kesh. Also she who had not feared
the empty-headed, drunken Amathel, was penetrated with a strange terror
of this man whom she felt to be strong and intelligent, and whose
great, greedy eyes rested on her beauty as though they could not tear
themselves away.

Now they were ascending the steps, and now Prince Abi was welcoming them
to his "humble house," giving them their throne names, and saying
how rejoiced he was to see them, his sovereigns, within the walls of
Memphis, while all the time he stared at Tua.

Pharaoh, who was tired, made no reply, but the young Queen, staring back
at him, answered:

"We thank you for your greeting, but then, my uncle Abi, why did you
not meet us outside the gates of Memphis where we expected to find
its governor waiting to deliver up the keys of Pharaoh's city to the
officers of Pharaoh?"