mistress and the Regent, and they will be astonished at your cleverness.
To-day you still know that I have shown you what you have to do; to-
morrow you will have forgotten it; and the day after to-morrow you will
believe yourself possessed by the inspiration of the nine great Gods. I
know that; but I cannot give anything for nothing. You live by your
smallness, another makes his living with his hard hands, I earn my scanty
bread by the thoughts of my brain. Listen! when you have half won
Paaker, and Ani shows himself inclined to make use of him, then say to
him that I may know a secret--and I do know one, I alone--which may make
the Mohar the sport of his wishes, and that I may be disposed to sell
it."

"That shall be done! certainly, mother," cried the dwarf. "What do you
wish for?"

"Very little," said the old woman. "Only a permit that makes me free to
do and to practise whatever I please, unmolested even by the priests, and
to receive an honorable burial after my death."

"The Regent will hardly agree to that; for he must avoid everything that
may offend the servants of the Gods."

"And do everything," retorted the old woman, "that can degrade Rameses in
their sight. Ani, do you hear, need not write me a new license, but only
renew the old one granted to me by Rameses when I cured his favorite
horse. They burnt it with my other possessions, when they plundered my
house, and denounced me and my belongings for sorcery. The permit of
Rameses is what I want, nothing more."

"You shall have it," said the dwarf. "Good-by; I am charged to look into