Seti turned, looked at him, and answered:

"Greeting, Bakenkhonsu. How comes it that you are still alive? When we
parted at Thebes I made sure----"

"That on your return you would find me in my tomb. Not so, Prince, it is
I who shall live to look upon you in your tomb, yes, and on others who
are yet to sit in the seat of Pharaoh. Why not? Ho! ho! Why not, seeing
that I am but a hundred and seven, I who remember the first Rameses and
have played with his grandson, your grandsire, as a boy? Why should I
not live, Prince, to nurse your grandson--if the gods should grant you
one who as yet have neither wife nor child?"

"Because you will get tired of life, Bakenkhonsu, as I am already, and
the gods will not be able to spare you much longer."

"The gods can endure yet a while without me, Prince, when so many are
flocking to their table. Indeed it is their desire that one good priest
should be left in Egypt. Ki the Magician told me so only this morning.
He had it straight from Heaven in a dream last night."

"Why have you been to visit Ki?" asked Seti, looking at him sharply. "I
should have thought that being both of a trade you would have hated each
other."

"Not so, Prince. On the contrary we add up each other's account; I mean,
check and interpret each other's visions, with which we are both of us
much troubled just now. Is that young man a scribe from Memphis?"