Now Abi, who had thought to see some shrinking child clothed in the
emblems of a queen, looked astonished at this tall and royal maiden who
had so sharp a tongue, and found no words to answer her. So she swept
past him and commanded to be shown where she should lodge in Memphis.

They led her to its greatest palace that had been prepared for Pharaoh
and herself, a place surrounded by palm groves in the midst of the city,
but having studied it with her quick eyes, she said that it did not
please her. So search was made elsewhere, and in the end she chose
another smaller palace that once had been a temple of Sekhet, the
tiger-headed goddess of vengeance and of chastity, whereof the pylon
towers fronted on the Nile which at its flood washed against them.
Indeed, they were now part of the wall of Memphis, for the great unused
gateway between them had been built up with huge blocks of stone.

Surrounding this palace and outside its courts, lay the old gardens of
the temple where the priests of Sekhet used to wander, enclosed within a
lofty limestone wall. Here, saying that the air from the river would be
more healthy for him, Tua persuaded Pharaoh to establish himself and his
Court, and to encamp the guards under the command of his friend Mermes,
in the outer colonnades and gardens.

When it was pointed out to the Queen that, owing to the lack of
dwelling-rooms, none which were fitting were left for her to occupy, she
replied that this mattered nothing, since in the old pylon tower were
two small chambers hollowed in the thickness of its walls, which were
very pleasing to her, because of the prospect of the Nile and the wide
flat lands and the distant Pyramids commanded from the lofty roof
and window-places. So these chambers, in which none had dwelt for
generations, were hastily cleaned out and furnished, and in them Tua and